


A Long Time Ago in a Larp Far Far Away

by Spiegatrix_Lestrange



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Adorkable Rey, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternative Universe - LARP, Attempt at Humor, Awesome Phasma, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Hux Has No Chill, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I love nerds, Implied Poe Dameron/Finn, Inappropriate Humor, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, LARPing, Live Action Role Playing, Phasma Ships It, RPG, Rey Needs A Hug, Reylo - Freeform, Role-Playing Game, Shamelessly Nerd, Silly, Some Plot, The're just a bunch on Nerds, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, This is what happen when I'm bored, nerd references, nerdy stuff, weirdos, what am I doing with my life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-03-29 16:29:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13930875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spiegatrix_Lestrange/pseuds/Spiegatrix_Lestrange
Summary: Particularly silly AU in which Poe and Fin drag Rey into Live Action Role Playing. She's supposed to meet new people and have fun, but she's not particularly convinced. Things will change when she'll meet someone.





	1. Chapter 1

“No guys. No. I'm serious.” Rey stated firmly, her mouth still partially full of noodles, the chopsticks in her hand pointing nervously at a pair of quite tiny silicon prosthetics, some elf ears to be precise, that Finn was showing her with a huge smile on his face.

“C'mon, Peanut!” he said with a playful voice “You're totally ready for this!”

“No! I'm not!”she replied, backing further more against the couch “This is next level nerdiness, I'm not ready for it and probably I never will.”

“Rey, Sweetheart, Honey, Darling...” Poe sat by her side on the couch, shooting her his most charming smile “You're already a nerd. You've read Tolkien, and Martin, and Rowling a hundred of times each. Besides, you've been playing D&D with us since...Forever?”

“This doesn't mean I'm ready to dress up like a crazy person shouting imaginary spells in the face of complete strangers.” The girl remarked, her eyes on her noodles.

“You really take yourself too seriously, you know that?” Finn declared frankly.

“Far too seriously!” Poe insisted “You're deciding to ignore a whole world of possibilities that is just in front of you! Think about it, this is how me and Finn met!”

The other man nodded in clear support of Poe's statement.

“This is supposed to mean that I have to come whit you this Saturday to find the love of my life or something?”

“Maybe, why not?” Finn intervened with a cocky smile “Peanut, you need to meet new people, to make new friends!”

“What's wrong with the friends I already have?”

“You mean besides me, Finn, Jessica and Amilyn?” Poe asked raising his eyebrows “You have other friends?”

Rey seemed outraged by the question:  
“I have a lot of friends besides our D&D party!”

“Imaginary friends don't count, Sweetie.” Finn specified almost casually shrugging his shoulders, receiving in return a chopstick trowed mercilessly at his face, that he dodged just out of luck.

“Finn, you're a dork!” the girl shouted.

“Well...Rey, Darling...He's right.” Poe tried hesitantly, his hands rising up in a calming gesture “I mean...You really need to get out more, you spend far too much time studying and working, you need to relax, to make new friends, maybe... To get laid?”

“Oi!” Rey's lips clenched in a clear warning “Where did that come from?!”

“Darling...We've never saw you with a guy, or a girl for that matter, and we had known you for five years!” Finn pointed out.

“This means nothing.” the girl clarified nervously “I'm just a... Private person. I don't like to talk about my dates.”

“You know that raid night with some guy from Korea on some MMO is not actually dating, right?”   
This time it was Poe's turn to dodge a chopstick.

“Anyway.” Finn moved forward “This doesn't matter. We already bought you the ticket for this week end, and a fabulous dress too.”  
Rey's eyes rolled enough to give her a hint of headache.  
“I suppose I don't have a choice in the matter.”

“Awww, Peanut” Finn smiled sweetly “Of course you don't.”

“C'mon. It will be fun!” Poe smiled too, that conversation was having far too much condescending smiles for Rey's taste “It would be like camping, the only difference will be that we're going do be dressed like idiots.”

“Fabulous idiots.” Finn corrected him, the other man nodded thoughtfully.

The girl huffed loudly:  
“I hate you so much guys. And just to be clear... I'm not going to wear anything skimpy. No chain mail bikini, no kinky leather armor, none of that.”

The two men looked at each other for a second. Poe nodded at Finn, and just now Rey noticed a couple of bags at the younger man's feet. With a nonchalant movement Finn pushed one of the two envelopes under the table with his foot, taking the other one in his hands. With far too much excitement he picked something out of the bag, a long, elegant elvish ivory gown.

“That is beautiful, and unpractical as fuck.” Rey declared, underlining her statement with a furrowed brow.

“An elven princess deserves an appropriate dress.” Poe said like it was obvious.

“Elven princess?” Rey asked with vague annoyance “So you have also already decided my character...”

“Of course!” Poe circled her shoulders, his hand rising dramatically in front of him “ You'll be the mighty priestess of the Light! Sister to Prince Keshar of Yavinia, Lord of the Elves and Head to the Resistance camp. Which is me, obviously.”

The girl's face was full of perplexity.  
“A priestess...”

Poe nodded.

“So you basically need a healer.”

The man smiled hesitantly.

“Maybe.”

“What happened to Amilyn's character?” Rey asked.

“Lay Holdana is on a very important diplomatic mission for the camp. Also, Amilyn has his niece's wedding this weekend.”

“So...I'm basically a replacement.” the girl pointed out in a snort.

“Of course not, Honey.” Poe smirked “You're a beautiful princess.”

Rey's eyes rolled again.  
“Oh, fuck off.”

***

“So...” Rey's voice came muffled form the backseat of the car, where the girl had found her place beside a quite invasive pile of stuff. She struggled to push away Finn's foam shield from her face “there's anything else I should know?”

“Well.” Poe had just stopped the car in a huge, crowded parking lot “You already know the rules, no real violence, keep yourself in character, and basically that's it. Have you read the manual?”

“Yes, I did. The whole setting seems dull.” Rey snorted.

“Well, it's classic medieval fantasy, Peanut.” Finn shrugged his shoulders “It doesn't have to be rocket science. We'll be in the land of Lukasia, dominated by the evil First Empire. They're the bad guys, the other camp basically. We're the Resistance, led by prince Keshar, we fight for Lukasia's freedom. We're basically the good guys.”

“Are the bad guys NPCs?” Rey asked, receiving a pleased smile by Poe as he got out of the car.

“Well, someone read the manual... By the way no, they're players, just like us.” The man clarified, opening her car door “There are also NPCs, but they usually play monsters, or minions of the Shadow.”

“The Shadow?” Rey asked.

“The Shadow...” Finn nodded dramatically.

“Wait. Does not Imperial serve the Shadow?” 

“No Rey, focus.” Poe said taking a backpack from her lap “The imperials serve the Darkness, We serve the Light. The Shadow is enemy to both of us.”

“This doesn't make much sense...” the girl pointed out finally stretching her legs out of the car.

“Of course it does. We hate the Shadow because it is... You Know... Shadowy. They hate it because it is darker than them.”

“How can a shadow be darker than darkness?” Rey looked at Poe and Finn while they were taking their stuff out of the car, when she realized that the only answer she would have got would have been an annoyed look from both of them she rolled her eyes.  
“Fine. Whatever. No rocket science.”

The girl took her backpack and the cooler from the trunk, she was about to ask Finn where they were supposed to camp when a voice reached for them from the SUV that just had stopped next to them. 

“Well well well, what do we have here?” A man in his mid thirties got down from the black SUV backseat. He looked totally out of context in his elegant black coat, with his red hair perfectly in place. Rey furrow her brow looking at his shoes. Who the hell would have worn a pair of Oxford for camping in the dirt?

“Hey Traitor!” a blond woman waved with fake cheerfulness in Finn's direction, moving then her eyes on Poe “Princess Keshar from Bit-my-ass-land! What an honor!” 

“Hux, Phas...” He snorted “You really should learn how to stay out of character.”

Rey looked at the exchange with evident perplexity, but then her attention ended on the man coming down from the SUV driver seat.

He was tall, very tall actually, dressed all in black with a hoodie opened on an old Iron Maiden t-shirt. His face was quite odd, a strange mixture of both soft and strong features partially covered by dark sunglasses and quite long dark hair. He wasn't conventionally handsome, but Rey had to admit to herself that he was actually quite pleasing to look at. He basically ignored everyone, heading for the SUV trunk, taking on his shoulder a large bag that looked quite heavy and sounded like metal hitting metal as soon as he moved it.   
“Guys.” His voice sounded deep and bored while he called for his friends “We should move. Time In is in about an hour.”

The two of them nodded briefly. The guy Poe had called Hux took a quite impractical trolley from the backseat, while Phas, the blond woman, got down from the car revealing a height definitely out of the ordinary. Rey couldn't help but feel like a little hobbit in comparison to her.

They unloaded the car with impressive efficiency without saying a word, and then they just moved away, basically ignoring Rey and her friends. The tall guy in black slowed down in front of Poe just one second.

“See you on the battlefield, your Highness.” he just said to the man in front of him, expressionless.

“Any time, Knight.” Poe just replied with a determined look.

When only him, Finn and Rey were left, Poe rolled his eyes in an annoyed huff.  
“Idiots.”

“And this, Peanut, is why the world thinks that Larpers are freaks.” Finn stated bitterly.

“Is that...Normal?” the girl asked raising an eyebrow.

“No...” Poe explained, gathering his things from the trunk “Usually players can distinguish what happens in game from what happens out of game. Those jerks are just the exception.”

“Let me guess... Imperials?” she asked.

“Not just Imperials, they are the leaders of the Imperial camp.” Finn explained “and they hate us. I don't mean our characters, I mean us. A lot.” 

“Why?”

“Five years ago or so they managed to capture my character.” Poe started, taking an improbable number of foam weapons from the backseat “Finn used to play in the Imperial camp back then, he helped me escape and his character changed his allegiance. This is how we met.” 

“And they had hated us since then.” Finn concluded.

“Very mature.” Rey snorted.

“You have no idea.” Poe huffed, closing the now empty car.

***

“Are you sure that you don't want to sleep with us? The tent is big enough...” Finn asked, moving his shoulder to put his chain mail in place. 

“Yeah...” Rey was actually more focused on fighting with the zip on the side of her ivory dress “I'll sleep in the car.”

“As you wish, darling.” Poe came out from the tent in his glorious elvish outfit. It looked expensive and very well made, the line was simple, elegant, a shade of warm brown decorated with hints of deep forest green. He was holding two pairs of prosthetic elven hears in his hand.

“Are you ready, sis?” he asked to Rey in a little smile.

“I guess...” the girl huffed, still not convinced.

“You're going to be great. Besides, you're an elf. If you feel to shy to talk to people you can always act like you don't understand well common tongue.” Finn explained, helping Poe to put his fake pointy ears on.

“I'm not that shy...” she protested weakly. 

“Whatever you say, Peanut.” Finn said, moving forward to her, fake elven hears on display in his hand “Now hold still, it's your turn.”

“BREAFING!!!” a female voice screamed into a megaphone somewhere.

“We're about to start.” Poe took his foam elven sword and putted it on his belt “Hurry up!”

***

The clearing between the parking lot and the forest was crowded with almost a hundred people, most of them already in costume. At the center of the clearing a few people were standing on what looked like a small stage. One of them, a tiny woman in her fifties with short bright orange hair, weirdly matched with a bright orange dress and a quite anachronistic “Staff” badge on her chest was holding the megaphone in her hands. She didn't looked particularly excited.  
“Well...Welcome to the seventieth event of Lukasia everybody!” she shouted in the megaphone “I'm Maz, I'm the head of the staff, you can call me Master or Fate or God if you want, I don't care. Now, let's recap a couple of rules....”

Rey felt quite nervous, but she admitted to herself that she was feeling a little less of an idiot dressed that way. In a crowd of people dressed in fantasy costumes she almost looked normal.

“We all need to be particularly careful. There's an ambulance right outside, but I would really appreciate if we could not use it, this time. I'm talking to you, Phasma, control your sword prowess, we don't need another broken nose.”

“It happened just once, two years ago!” the blonde woman shouted from the crowd “I said I was sorry!”

“Whatever. Moving on...”

As the woman on the stage kept talking, Rey took a moment to look in Phasma's direction. She was wearing an impressive full metal armor, chromed, almost shiny as a mirror, with a quit flamboyant black cloak on her left shoulder. On her side the two men she shared the SUV with were looking at the stage with faces so serious they didn't looked like someone that was there to have fun.

The guy named Hux was wearing a long pompous black tunic, while the other one, the guy with the good hair, Rey called him in her mind not knowing his name, was wearing an armor quite similar to Phasma's only in black, his head partially covered by a hood.   
They looked quite badass, Rey had to admit, but they were clearly taking themselves too seriously.

“Now, Talking about the plot.” The woman on the stage kept speaking, and Rey looked back at her.  
“For those who weren't there the last time, there is a momentary truce between the two factions, due to the recent attacks by the Shadow.”

“The Shadow!”Someone echoed dramatically from the crowd.

“The Shadow!” shouted someone else in fake disdain.

“Shut up!” the woman's voice made the megaphone growled gracelessly “So, folks. Keep yourself in character, don't cheat, play by the rules and try to not hurt yourself or others. Now get out of my face and have fun, Time In is in ten minutes!”

Finn putted his hand on Rey's shoulder.  
“Are you ready?”

“Stop asking!” She replied, hardly hiding a little laugh “It's not like I have a choice.” 

“Very well, Lady Kiriel of Yiavinia, let's wait for the Time In call in the tavern.” the man grinned back at her.

“A tavern? It's twelve in the morning, I think is a little bit early for a drink.” she laughed.

“Darling, this is a fantasy version of the Middle Ages, and we're princes.” Poe pointed out “We're not supposed to drink water.”

Rey rolled her eyes.

“Poe...”

“Nope. Try Again.”

“Fine... Keshar, we're wearing fake elven ears.” the girl remarked “I can't see how historical accuracy can be a thing.”


	2. Chapter 2

To Rey's unprepared eyes the tavern looked totally surreal. The structure had been, probably, a wooden cottage, maybe an old, disused hunting shack, renewed and fashioned to look like a generic, ancient-ish looking cantina. 

The wooden walls were covered in banners made of fabric, some of them were white, with a golden phoenix, symbol of the camp of Light, painted on, others were black, decorated with the red sun of the First Empire. 

According to her understanding of the plot, Rey knew that the tavern was considered, even before the truce, as a neutral zone, a place where the rivalry between the camps couldn't end in, even only on-game, bloodshed. 

The atmosphere was thick and unusual. Even if the sun was still high in the sky the tavern resulted dark and foggy, enlighten by candles, a fireplace on the side of the room, and only a few small windows. 

As she sat between Poe and Finn at a long wooden table, the girl took a nervous look around. Even if the game had started only a few minutes ago basically everyone around them was perfectly in character, sipping beer from horns or singing playfully old battle chants. 

Her feeling about the whole experience were rapidly changing. If before she entered the tavern she felt like an idiot for being here in a silly costume playing a character, now she felt inadequate for the opposite reason: even if she had been a pretty active member of the theater club back in high school now she was clearly doubting about her capacity of staying in character at all. 

She would has never looked as natural as Poe, ups! Keshar, with is noble stance, and the totally believable proud look in his eyes, or as badass as Finn, ups! The Knight of the Storm, totally confident in his chain mail, his gloved hand on his foam sword.

Nervously she took from her bag her spell book, only a hard covered, camouflaged version of the game's rule-book, trying to hide her uneasiness behind its fake ancient pages.

A cute, small Asian girl, Who had been presented to her as Rosana, the finest alchemist in the Resistance Camp, was sitting next to them, totally focused on a few -clearly fake- samples of herbs stored in a few glass vials in front of then. 

“I don't think this might be enough for the night, my Lord.” Rosana said absently to Poe “If the Shadow attacks tonight we'll need more components if you want to count on my healing potions.”

Poe nodded slowly, his glare felt distant, like he was actually pondering a matter of life and death. 

“Maybe you and Kiriel can go and find some other herbs in the woods later.” he proposed after a while “we have still time before the sunset.”

“what happens after the sunset?” Rey asked, biting her lip.

“Nothing good, my Lady.” Finn replied this time “this forest is haunted by revolting creatures. Monsters, dead who rise from their grave, there's no end to the evil we could face here.”

With a quite comical timing the door slammed open in a quite too dramatic way to go unnoticed, and Rey recognized the three figures in the doorway instantly. The bullies from the parking lot, the only difference was that they were in costume this time.

The three of them took a long moment to give to Rey's table a disgusted stare before sitting at a table on the other side of the tavern, ignoring them. 

“Brother...” the girl hesitated, leaning closer to Poe, keeping her voice down “Who are they?”  
The fact that Poe and Finn had explained it to her already didn't meant that her character should know.

“Those are the heads of the First Empire camp.” Poe whispered back “The woman in the shiny armor is Lady Phasma, she's the personal guard of Lord Hux, he's a priest of the Darkness. The other well...The tall man in the black armor is Lord Ren. He's the Master of the Knights of Ren, a group of paladins loyal to the Darkness. Needless to say, my sweet sister, that they're dangerous, and our truce is fragile, paper thin, actually. Whatever happens, I don't want you to be alone around them.”

Rey nodded nervously, her eyes stayed on the man in black, Lord Ren, maybe a few second more than necessary. Like he was actually capable of feeling her glare on him he looked back, his eyes were dark and cold, emotionless, and the girl found herself looking away.

After a few moments Rosana stepped up, putting her stuff in her leather backpack.   
“So...” she started, looking at Rey “Let's get some herbs.” 

The other girl nodded briefly, putting her spell book back in her bag. As they moved to the door, ignoring willingly the three heads of the First Empire sitting near the exit, a loud noise almost petrify Rey.

The door was closed, and something was hitting very loudly on the other side. Someone must have turned on a smoke machine, because now the whole floor was swiftly covering in a white thick fog.

Rosana, by her side, grabbed her hand tight, and the room went rapidly from silence to a wave of agitated noises.

Phasma, unusually agile in her armor, had jumped near the window behind her, looking out with her foam sword already in her hands.  
“Shadow monster!” she shouted.

“Kiriel, Rosana, back here, now!” Rey could hear Poe's voice calling for her, but it was too late. A bunch of warriors had moved rapidly from another table, cutting off the two girl's escape, while the hits on the door grew stronger. 

Rey almost jumped out of her skin while she heard a cold hand on her shoulder, making her turn around.

The red haired man, Hux, was behind her, a black sun made of dark wood, probably his cleric sacred symbol in his other hand.  
“Are you a healer, girl?” he asked coldly, nodding to the phoenix symbol she was wearing as a necklace. Rey only nodded. 

“You both, with me.” he ordered, turning around to his companions “Phasma, Kylo, she's a healer, you know what to do.” 

They both just nodded, and in a second Rey and Rosana were dragged behind the two warriors by Hux. When the door finally opened Rey grabbed her sacred symbol swallowing hardly. Even if she was behind the guy with the good hair, Kylo, she had found out his name, and she knew perfectly that there wasn't actually nothing to fear, she felt distinctively a jolt of adrenaline.

A tall figure, something that reminded her of a Dementor mixed with a Nazgull, only tall enough to barely pass trough the door, moved slowly into the tavern. 

Rationally, she knew perfectly that that was only a costume, and there was someone inside it just playing the part, that the huge clawed hands of the creature were only made of black painted foam, and that two red led lights were hidden in its hood to simulate horrible feral eyes, but she couldn't help but feeling a rush of fear that seemed almost real.

She looked back at Poe and Finn. They were unable to move forward right now, the tavern was too crowded, and everyone seemed too busy looking for a fight with the big black fake monster to make way for them. Her friends had jumped effortlessly on the table, and bow and arrows in their hands, They too were pointing at the black creature. 

“Keep the line!” Phasma shouted again, dodging a clumsy movement of the big black foam claws. 

Kylo raised his blade, murmuring something that sounded like an invocation to the dark fire, and suddenly his sword was lighting up, softly enlightened by a red led hidden on the hilt. 

While Rosana managed to find refuge under what has been the First Empire's table and was checking furiously in her bag for something useful, Rey's eyes were on the tall man in black armor in front of her joining the crowd of belligerent warriors attacking the monster. 

The creature seemed to react to his blows with loud screeching noises, while basically ignoring the others. 

Phasma got hit one, two times, and she fell on her knees, so Rey backed further behind Kylo, giving Hux enough space to drag the female warrior behind. He landed his sacred symbol on her breastplate and turned it on, revealing a red light pretty similar to the one on Kylo's sword. The red haired man started to murmur a spell and in a few second Phasma was miming a loud gasp, like she was back to consciousness.

Kylo got hit for the first time and Rey almost panicked, like he was actually her last defense against something actually dangerous. In that moment the girl felt a hand on her tight and almost jumped out of her skin, realizing after just a second that was Rosana's hand. The girl handed her a white vial.

“Here!”

“What is it?”

Rosana gestured her to move closer.  
“It's a power potion.” she murmured against Rey's pointy ear “It unlocks the next level of your powers for ten minutes. You are a priestess of the light, witch means...”

“I can banish that thing.”

“Exactly, but you got to be in front of it to cast the spell.”

Rey was about to nod when se felt something heavy hitting the ground near her. She turned around to look at the creature but now Kylo was on the ground totally still. Panic, again.

“Heal him, girl!” Hux was healing Phasma, again, and luckily the creature seemed to focus on another group of warriors now. 

Rey dropped on her knees, the Power potion still in her hand, and her sacred symbol into the other. She landed it on the black breastplate of Kylo's armor, lighting it up with the little hidden switch.   
The girl breathed deeply. First spell, she thought, you know the rules, at least ten words, ten seconds to full his health points, no big deal, you can do this.

“By the power of the Light...” her voice came out a little more nervous than she expected “I shall heal your wounds...”

She kept repeating her invocation as a mantra for a few seconds, taking just now the time to look at the man she was miming to heal. His expression was impressively realistic, like he was actually passed out, his eyes barely open fixed on a non existing point in front of him, his full lips parted. Rey noticed just now the little constellation of small moles decorating his face. 

She repeated her spell for the last time and he too, as Phasma had before, inhaled sharply, opening his eyes wide and now he was looking at her, almost in surprise. There was no time to waste now.

“Stay down.” Rey commanded to him with a new found firmness, raising the little white vial to her lips.

He shoot her a quite perplex look, but decided to not move. 

Rey sucked in a breath, standing up and sipping the potion, that was basically just water, she realized.   
Her mind ran to possible examples for a good interpretation of her new found power. The Exorcist? No, to pretentious. Galadriel? Maybe elvish enough but definitely not her style. Dean Winchester? Great. Perfect.

“Hey! Shadowy...thing!” She shouted, censoring herself, realizing just now that Dean Winchester's wasn't probably the best example for a medieval-fantasy setting. She moved forward, carefully avoiding to step on Kylo while rising her sacred symbol above her head. The creature turned to look at her “By the power of the Light I banish you! Turn back to the shadow, You're not welcome here!” 

The guy inside the Shadow Monster hissed venomously at her, maybe trying to resist to her spell, but she continued.

“I said get out! The Light commands you to disappear, you disgusting creature!”

In a loud squeal the creature backed to the door, and Rey moved forward the sacred symbol shining in her hand. 

The Shadow creature exited clumsily and the door closed with a loud slam, leaving a whole tavern full of people looking at Rey with widened eyes in complete silence. Even Poe and Finn looked surprised, to say the least.

“Wo-hooo!”Someone in the back of the tavern let out loudly, and suddenly most of the crowd was clapping and cheering.

Rey realized she was probably blushing up to her ears, as she looked back at the three First Empire guys near her. They weren't actually cheering, more looking at her like she had two heads.

“Good job!” Rosana's voice claimed her attention “You'll feel weak for the next fifteen minutes, it's the potion side effect.” she murmured against her ear, the girl just nodded.

“Sister!” Poe had managed to reach for her, and Finn was just behind him, a wide smile on both men's faces.   
Poe hugged her unceremoniously, and Rey couldn't help but smile.  
“I knew you were a natural.” he whispered in her hear.

“Sister?” the perplex voice of Phasma asked behind them.

“Yes, Lady Phasma. I think you already met my sister, Lady Kiriel of Yavinia.” the elven prince replied, disentangling Rey from his embrace but keeping a hand on her shoulder.

The girl took a moment to look at the trio in black.

Hux and Phasma had a quite surprised look on their faces, while Kylo... Well, Kylo was still expressionless, but he moved a step closer, half bowing in a quite chivalrous manner that made Rey slightly uncomfortable.  
“Thank you for healing me, m' Lady.” he stated politely, looking at her. His eyes were dark, and curiously expressive in comparison to his impassive face. 

“There's no need to thank me...Really.” Rey found her voice to be a little too high pitched, tensed, for her tastes.

“Yeah, whatever.” Phasma interrupted rudely, looking back at the door “We should discuss what just happened. Since when Shadow Monsters attack in broad daylight?”

“They're getting bolder.” Hux nodded.

“I hate to agree with you but...”Poe's eyes went on the now closed doors “We should definitely understand what's going on.”

***

Experiencing a sudden rush of popularity was something Rey hadn't expected from LARP, or from anything, to be exact. She hasn't been popular in her high school years, like at all, so that sudden considerable amount of smiles, cheering, and offered drinks was almost intoxicating. Maybe the alcohol was helping too, making her feel slightly tipsy. 

“Here's another one, from the mandalorian knight at the counter.” Maz, that was playing the character of the tavern's owner, gave her another glass of wine. She thanked her with a nod, raising her glass to the man at the counter that replied raising his own briefly.

“Someone has become famous.” Finn teased her.

“I've done nothing.” Rey clarified “It's Rosana the hero here, she gave me the right potion at the right time.” 

“Oh, Lady Kiriel” The alchemist replied in a smirk “Shut up and enjoy the moment.”

“I think it's better if I stop enjoying it so much.” the girl playing the healer admitted, taking just one sip of wine before handing it to Poe “Or I'll be totally drunk before the sunset.”

“You really should learn how to have fun.” Finn declared shrugging his shoulders.

“The Knight of the Storm is right, sister.” Poe nodded “you really need to chill. We're safe now, you can low your guard.”

“Well...It's not very ladylike to get drunk in the middle of the afternoon.”

After a while Maz came back, carrying on her tray something quite different. A plate with a flower, a real flower, a white iris probably stolen from the flower bed at the entrance of the tavern, and a note.

“With the regards of the Master of the Knights of Ren.” the short red haired woman told her.

“What?!” Finn almost shouted.

Poe's eyebrows raised in evident surprise.  
“Well, that's new...”

Rey took nervously the note into her hand, glancing at the First Empire table. Thankfully Kylo wasn't looking at her, he and Hux were talking in low voices with pretty intent expressions on their faces. She opened the accurately folded piece of paper, avoiding Finn's curious glare.

“Lady Kiriel,  
I only wished to thank you again for your kind gesture. Saving someone is something you as a cleric may be accustomed to, but to me, as a knight, being saved by someone out of my ranks has been a new and unexpected.  
I owe you my life, and your kindness will not be forgotten.   
I hope I'll not sound too bold, or disrespectful, but I really hope you'll agree to meet me in private, after dinner.   
Your gesture deserves a gift in return.”

The girl furrowed her brow, she handed the note to Poe without saying a word. The man read it, and then passed it to Finn, who read it with Rosana.

“This sound pretty sexual.” The elven prince affirmed after a while. 

“Oh, c'mon. He's just trying to be nice.” Rey huffed.

“Maybe he realized that you were looking at him like a starved person looks at a turkey leg.” Finn considered blatantly, making Rey blush mercilessly.

“No I wasn't!”  
“Yes, you were.” Poe nodded “Don't get me wrong, Lord Ren is indeed a nice piece of... Knight...Too bad he's as asshole.”

“This sounds like a trap to me.” Rosana commented firmly.

“I doubt it. They don't have the guts to break the truce.” was Poe's response “Their priests can't do   
what our can, they need us against the Shadow.”

Rey read the note another couple of times, swallowing nervously. Yeah, well, Kylo looked good, so what? The fact that he was trying to be nice didn't meant that his note was the medieval-fantasy version of sexting. And even if it was? She was an adult, intelligent woman capable of taking her own decisions. 

“I think I'll go.” she stated after a while “If becoming Lord Ren's friend will secure the truce, so be it.”

She received a knowing look form both Finn and Poe.

“What?”

“At least use protection.” Finn muffled against his mug, hiding a little laugh.

“My protection spells are all that I need.” Rey cut him off with a snort, rising on her feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I had this chapter and the next on my mind for days, I even took notes about them while I was on the plane.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm in clearly post-travel whithdrawal, I'm writing far too much, but right now I don't care, I have two day off before classes started again and I regret nothing!  
> I'd like to thank all of you for the support, comments and kudos. You response is very important to me and makes me write faster and with far more enjoiment.  
> Thank you so much!

The rest of the the afternoon went down pretty smoothly. Finn, Rey, Poe and Rose, Rosana's real name, had reached for their camp, greeted respectfully by the guards on the side of the open wooden gate. 

Rey had to admit that she was impressed. The whole camp was colorful, loud, and crowded with all sorts of people. Humans, elves, some orcs, and even beast-folks. Most of them were actually beautiful, their costumes so well putted together that she almost wished she had enough money to play a cat-folk or something like that one day. 

Almost everyone saluted Poe with a big smile and a “Your Highness”, but it seemed that her actions at the tavern had preceded her, granting her too a warm welcome. 

Kylo's flower had found his place into her hair, and it almost seemed like she had launched a new fashion trend or something. A lot of girls complimented her for it, and asked her if they could wear it too or it was a priestess thing.

She followed Poe and Finn around the camp while they took care of the defenses, preparing arrows and giving instructions for the night. She listened with them to the reports of the scouts and mingled with odd easiness with almost anyone she came in contact with. That indeed was the most surprising thing about that day, actually.

The sun was setting and the door were about to close when a guy in a brown tunic came in, carrying a scroll. He was breathing fast, he must have ran quite a lot. 

“I have a message for Lady Kiriel of Yavinia.” he breathed “Form the First Empire camp.”

Rey and Poe heard that and looked at each other with evident perplexity.  
“If it's your friend again, dear sister...”The man teased her with a little smile “I'll need to talk to him about his... Persistence.”

Rey rolled her eyes commenting with a very unelvish-like “Shut up” while she took the scroll from the messenger's hands.

She started reading it, and the more she read the more her brow furrowed.  
“It's from Hux.” She declared after a while “ It says that they've found a something in the woods, an ancient scroll, probably about the Shadow. It was on the body of a Shadow acolyte.”

“Good for them.” Poe murmured “And what do they want from you?”

“Hux says that the scroll is written in elvish. They need help to translate it.” 

The elven prince nodded briefly.  
“you'll need an escort. Let me talk to the knight of the Storm.”

“Nonsense” Rey cut him off “You're preparing for an incoming attack, I'll go alone, I have a few spells to protect myself yet.”

“Kiriel...”

“What, Keshar? There's the truce, remember?”

***

The road to the tavern was quiet, maybe too quiet, anyone was busy running to their own camp or finding refuge elsewhere. Rey started being slightly worried when she realized that basically no one was around by the time she reached for the tavern. Swallowing slowly she entered, founding the place basically empty if not for Maz cleaning some mugs and the First Empire trio sitting at their usual table.

“Lady Kiriel.” Hux saluted her without any particular enthusiasm, without lifting his eyes from the scroll on the table, Phasma, on his side, looked quite bored, while Kylo, on the opposite side of the table, appeared almost stiff in his usual blank expression. He simply nodded to her, his hood leaned back on his shoulders.

“So...” Rey started, nervously, she looked briefly around her “That is the scroll, I suppose.”

“Yes.” the red haired man replied calmly, barely hiding an hint of annoyance at the obvious question.

“May I?” The girl came closer, furrowing her brow. She took unceremoniously the scroll from the table taking a long moment to look at it. Damn, that was elvish. Not actual elvish, but English written in the Tolkien's elvish alphabet. It was also almost correctly written. Damn. Those staff guys knew what they were doing. For the first time in her life she wasn't regretting her choice to neglect French in favor of reading Tolkien obsessively. 

“Can you read it?” Hux asked, almost nervously.

“Sure...” she nodded, without looking away from the paper “This is Sindarin... The accents, which actually are the vocals, are a bit of a mess, but I can do it.”

“What the hell is Sindarin?” Phasma asked in a huff.

“It's one of the two elvish languages.” Kylo answered in Rey's place almost stealing her a content half smile.

“Exactly. So...” The girl sat on the table, crossing almost automatically her legs in a position a real elven princess would have avoided without a doubt “...It's a tale about the beginning of the world, or something.”

“Would you mind to share it with us?” Hux demanded, taking a fluffy feather-pen in his hand.

“So...” Rey begun, calmly. She focused completely on the scroll, her brow furrowing. She was so focused she could almost hear the Sherlock theme in the back of her head “ At the beginning Darkness and Light were linked, embracing one another in perpetual love. They were eternal, all knowing, complementary. The didn't know the meaning of conflict or war. Then the Shadow came. Envious of their everlasting union it found a way to separate them, stealing from them the unlimited power that came from her being together. 

“The more the grew apart, the more the Shadow became strong. As centuries passed the Light and the Darkness almost forgot their nature, their union, until only hate and war was left. The more they fought, the Shadow instead only grew stronger. Only the two long lost lovers can defeat it, regaining the balance between them. It will come the day in which two Heralds will come, one from the Light and one from the Darkness. They'll join forces not out of need, but out of their free will. Their union will remember to the ancient gods their true nature, and to them will be granted the power to lead the people of Lukasia to victory against the Shadow.” 

“Oh... This is not boring at all.” Phasma huffed, rolling her eyes.

“Anything else?” Hux asked lifting his pen from his notebook, Rey just shook her head “Any thoughts?” he was talking to Kylo, now. His was looking absently at something in front of him. 

“We have to find the champions.” The paladin stated after a while “Two people from the two different camps, who joined forces because they wanted to, not because they needed to, correct?”

“So it seems...” the elven girl replied calmly.

The First Empire trio exchanged perplex glares for a few seconds, their silent conversation continued for a while, ending with Kylo shooting Phasma a knowing look that made her eyes grew wide.

“No way. No fucking way.”

Her statement generated in Hux one of the most perfect facepalm Rey had ever seen. He clearly knew what they were, or better were not, talking about.

“We should consider this possibility.” Kylo remarked grimly. 

“Hell no, he's not an Imperial anymore. Stormy doesn't count, can't count. This is too stupid, I refuse to consider it!”  
Phasma looked agitated, maybe not just on game. She seemed too frustrated, to nervous for hers being only a choice in interpretation.

Rey's eyes shot open in poorly hidden disbelief. The trio believed that Poe and Finn were those described in the scroll. That would have made sense, in a way. They joined forces definitely because they wanted to, and yet...Finn's character wasn't following the path of the Darkness anymore. That was enough for them not being the chosen ones. 

She cleared his throat nervously.  
“Actually, The knight of the Storm is not a Darkness Acolyte anymore so...” He voice became weaker as the eyes of the trio landed on them “The prophecy intended that both of the Heralds must be champion to their own deity, so...” 

“Thank god...” Phasma snorted “The thought of following the two of them in battle made me cringe. No offense, Princess.”

Rey shrugged her shoulders, they were the bad guys after all, she didn't expected them to be nice.

“Tomorrow, as soon as possible, we need to consult the oracle. She is in the deep of the forest, it is not a good idea to go there now.” Hux declared, putting his leather notebook back in his bag. The other two nodded briefly.

Rey was about to suggest that maybe Poe should be informed, but she didn't feel comfortable enough to say it. They were enemies, after all.  
“It's better if I go back to my camp. It's getting late.” she stated almost casually at some point.

Hux nodded briefly, but a sudden movement got her attention. Kylo was raising on his feet.  
“I'll escort you. It's dangerous.” he said calmly. Without looking at her. 

Rey felt a little lump in her throat, oh right, that. She almost forgot the note. The girl nodded briefly getting down from the table and fixing her ivory cloak around her shoulders. 

“See you in a bit.” Kylo nodded to his companions, for a moment the girl believed he was avoiding their glares.

As they exited the tavern Rey realized that the weather had turned cold, the sky was empty and ha particularly bright full moon had rose without her noticing. The whole place around them seemed silent and almost totally empty, no one was around. The peace before the storm, she couldn't help but thinking. 

Kylo was walking silently at her side, almost too silently, Rey considered, after all, he was the one who wanted to talk to her in private. She kept looking at him sideways while they headed to the Resistance camp. He was tall, and his armor only made him look even more imposing that he actually was. Now that she was thinking about it, he looked incredibly natural in his definitely uncomfortable outfit. The various plates of the armor must have been heavy, yet he was carrying them around with the same nonchalance as it had been a trench coat.

The girl cleared her throat, after a while.  
“So...What do you think about the prophecy, Lord Ren?”

He replied after a while, the deepness of his voice sounded almost calculated.  
“I'm not a man of words...M'lady. That's Lord Hux job. I'm afraid my understanding of such matters can't hold a chance against the knowledge you hand him could have as clerics.”

“Well...You surely have a different kind of knowledge m'Lord.” she replied furrowing her brow. His last statement sounded almost humble, something she wouldn't had expected from him “I've left Yavinia only a few days ago. I know nothing about this war, surely you know more than me about the Shadow.”

“It is an insidious enemy. Every man we loose on the field make its army grow stronger. This is one of the reason behind the truce.” His voice sounded calm and steady, while they kept walking without looking at each other.

“You believe in the truce, then.” she murmured hesitantly.

“I didn't say that. I saw it as necessary, but out factions had fought each other for years now. So much war and hate can't be forgotten easily.” 

Kylo's response almost made her shiver. It sounded almost dangerous. She tried a little smirk, definitely not an elvish one, to try to ease the tension.  
“Should I worry, then?” she asked “You know, you escorting me...”

Kylo's footsteps stopped, for the firs time he was looking at her. She almost had to lean her head back a little to look him in the eyes.  
“You saved my life, Lady Kiriel. I'm not that ungrateful.” It was his turn to smirk. 

It felt strange, almost disturbingly pleasant. Weirdly, even if that wasn't definitely a proper smile, Rey couldn't help but thinking that he wasn't used to smile. That was a quite silly thought actually, she realized right away. She didn't knew anything about this guy. His character may have been a dark, always serious, evil knight, but maybe in real life he was a clown, or a comedian, a kindergarten teacher or something, with two dogs, a nice house in the suburbs and a super cute girlfriend who loved pink and shabby chic interior design. She didn't have a way to know. 

Analyzing people was basically her second nature, a clear consequence of her trust issues, and getting to know someone in this new context, she realized, could easilyhad become her new nightmare of choice. No one was himself while playing, how could Poe and Finn possibly had thought that bringing her here was a good idea? 

Rey inhaled sharply. She was clearly overthinking. Damn those trust issues.  
“I didn't wanted to offend you, Lord Ren.” she murmured hesitantly, trying hard to shut down his train of thoughts.

“No offense was taken.” He reassured her.  
They were about to reach the small part of the forest before the Resistance camp while a screeching noise filled the air, followed almost instantly by footsteps, many slow footsteps.

“Damn.” 

Rey felt Kylo's firm hand dragging her behind a tree and she a little squeaky noise escaped her lips.

“Shh...” the Knight silenced her. In a moment, she realized, he was behind her, also hiding behind the tree, his long black cloak circling her.

“You're all dressed in white...” he murmured, as he was justifying himself “You can be seen in the moonlight by miles away.”

She nodded nervously, her whole body stiffening as she felt the cold plates of his armor against her back. His hands were on her shoulders, keeping his cloak in place. She realized just now how actually large they were. 

In front of them soon appeared what looked like a whole flock of NPCs playing a definitely creepy undead small army. They were at least thirty, and they were heading to the Resistance camp. 

“I need to go... They need me” Rey whispered nervously, turning her face around to look at Kylo and almost jumping out of her skin when she realize how actually close he was, his chin almost brushing against her temple.

“There's no way we could get to your camp unnoticed. It's too dangerous. You'll end up dead in seconds, and I won't let it happen. Not on my watch.” His response sounded final, he hissed it almost into her hair. “We can only wait.”

Rey exhaled sharply, closing her eyes for a minute. That was clearly a hell of a first day.  
Quite evident battlefield noises started to come from the Resistance camp, and Rey found herself tightening her hands on Kylo's cloak. He was almost totally silent, she could only hear his breath brushing gently the back of her hair. That was weird. Pleasantly weird but weir nevertheless. Strangely, in that wall, absurd situation, she felt safe. Like there was something actually to be saved from. 

The whole sensation fade away almost instantly when she felt a sudden movement close behind her.

“Subdue.” 

Fuck. The conventional sign for stunning came out from Kylo's mouth in a warm whisper, as he pushed gently the end of his foam dagger against her neck. She knew the rules. If you were not immune to stunning, which she wasn't, your character had to pass out for ten minutes. Great, that has been to good to be true, actually. Fighting hard not to huff Rey mimed a sudden faint, as she dropped on her knees against the three, her eyes closed. Great. Poe would have been so mad at her. Rose was right, it has been a trap all along.

She barely payed attention to Kylo moving beside her, clearly convinced that he was probably ready to cut her character's throat with his foam dagger. Damn, se didn't even had another dress to play another character whit.

“Excuse me...” Kylo's low voice sounded quite different, almost embarrassed. It wasn't firm and almost coached like when he was in game, it was a little bit lower, like it was coming from his throat now, probably his natural tone. She turned around, furrowing her brow.

“Hey I...can I pick you up?” 

For a second he looked at her, his expression was far less dark than usual. The man realized just now how his word may be misinterpreted and frowned, looking away under her perplex glare.

“I mean, can I lift you? You know, it's physical contact, so I thought it was better if I asked before... you know, I don't want to make you uncomfortable...”

His sudden off game shyness made her almost smile nervously.  
“You're already wearing an armor... am I not to heavy?” She whispered, joining him off game for a brief moment.

“No, I mean, I'm used to the armor and you look quite small...Not small in a bad way just...” he swallowed, breathing deeply “... just lightweight.”

Rey had to fight a little chuckle mounting in her throat. Lord Ren, mighty dangerous Master of the Knights of Ren, was actually shy with girls in real life. That made him possibly even cuter than he already was.

“It's okay. Yes, you can.” she whispered after a second, turning slightly to help him. She felt his hands moving nervously to circle the small of her back and under her knees, then he lifted her up almost effortlessly. 

“ Be careful with the armor...It's pointy in some parts, it might hurt you...”

“I'm okay, really.” she murmured back in a small smile.

He started walking trough the edge of the woods, the undead army was probably too focused on attacking the Resistance camp by now to mind them. 

“Sorry for the off-game.” he kept his voice really low without looking at her “and sorry I stunned you...You know.”

“It's okay really. It's just a game.” Her response seemed to almost surprise him, he nodded briefly, looking at her sideways.

“I'm Rey, by the way.” she said in a whisper after just a second. She didn't now if that information was necessary, but it felt quite strange to be in someone's arms without even knowing each other names.

“I'm Ben...” he replied, swallowing nervously again.

“Nice to meet you, Ben...Now, back on game.” she said in a small smile, closing her eyes after that and pretending again to be unconscious, her head leaning on his shoulder. 

She didn't had the chance to notice the weird, embarrassed smile on his face while he kept walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Ben is a huge nerd, who would had thought?  
> Thanks again for reading, Comments and Kudos are always welcome. See you soon!


	4. Chapter 4

The gate of the First Empire camp appeared far more sinister than her camp's, but that was hardly a surprise, Rey realized taking a look at the way ahead of her from behind her lashes.

Kylo, well, actually Ben was keeping himself in character, he had remained silent for the last few minutes. 

Inside her head Rey was counting down the time left for her on-game unconsciousness. Two minutes, and then things would had become... Definitely intense. So that was a kidnapping. Why? What could have been Kylo's motives on game to capture her and bring her to his camp? Rey would have surely found out soon.

They gate opened almost immediately in front of them, on the other side Phasma and Hux were waiting for them. Even if her eyes were closed the girl was pretty sure she had recognized their voices.

“At last...” Phasma grunted, she was clearly in her usual good mood.

“Excellent.” Hux seemed unusually pleased “The command tent is empty, you'll find the shackles there.”

Kylo didn't reply, but,Rey couldn't help but furrow her brow, her eyes still closed. Shackles? Seriously? That was going a little bit too far. 

What to do, then? What Kiriel would have done? Rey had a quite precise idea about her character, she had planned her personality and background quite accurately and, as many beginners, she had chose to portray basically a better, more intense version of herself. That was, she was now ready to admit, actually quite lame. She could have done better. The trio were pro players, after all. They had been in the game for more than five years for sure, and a little, maybe a little too insecure part of Rey would have liked to impress them, but how? She kept thinking while she felt Kylo landing her gently on a bench, presumably in the command tent, and putting some metal shackles, obviously big enough to make her hands sleep away if she needed to, on her wrists.

In that moment she had an idea. You know what? She told herself, all in! It was time for an old theater trick she learned in high school. She rolled her eyes under her eyelids, starting to think about the most sad things possible. After all, considering especially her childhood, she had a quite wide choice. Now she only had to focus on her breath, keeping it steady for now, and wait. She hoped that old trick might work, she hadn't done it in years.

“Ren...” she heard Hux saying “Awake her.” 

She held her breath on purpose as she felt Kylo's gloved hand hitting gently her cheek. As planned the drama started right away. Her eyes shot open in a pure imitation of terror, and as she hoped they were swollen, and wet.

“What happened? Where am I?” she hiccuped, God she even managed to sob pretty well “What have you done to me?”

The trio in front of her fell totally silent, almost in disbelief. Ben looked definitely worried, Hux's brow was furrowed in evident perplexity. Phasma well... was Phasma.

“What the fuck Ben?” she hissed nervously, going mercilessly off game “What the hell did you do to her?”

“Me?” Ben stepped back defensively “I...Nothing!”  
Hux's eyes were rolling enough to become white.  
“Oh god...what a noob...” he muttered under his breath.

“Guys...” Rey said in a very low murmur while her cheeks were getting wet whit tears “I'm on game...”

“Oh.” 

Their reassured sighs filled the tent. Her performance must have been impressive, Phasma was looking at her in even more disbelief while Hux tried to regain his composure clearing his throat.

Ben was looking at her with wide eyes. He lifted a hand placing it at the height of his chest, his back to his companions giving her a shy thumb up.  
“You're good.” He mouthed, so that the other couldn't hear him.

Rey replied only with a little smile before her mouth erupted in another agonizing fake sob.  
“What happened?” She repeated, a clear invitation for all of them to get back in the game “Where am I? What have you done to me?”

“You're a hostage, your Highness.” Hux replied calmly, taking a long moment to look at her. In his hand, she realized, there was a book, not his usual spell book she had seen back in the tavern.

“Why?” the girl sighed.

“You don't have to fear. You'll be part of the plan to defeat the Shadow, only not in the way you think.” The red haired man moved forward to her, while Kylo moved aside to let him come nearer.   
“What do you know about rituals, priestess?” Hux asked.

The truth was that Rey didn't knew much. She had read the “Master Ritualist” skill on the rule book but she hadn't the guts to take it. It was powerful indeed, considering that trough it a character could basically obtain whatever he wanted if the ritual would had been cool enough, but that was pro player stuff, she told herself, and she was just a noob. The girl just shook her head.

“The Darkness is powerful, yet there are things that my deity can't offer me directly.” Hux's pale face was cold as ice. He was made to play the villain, Rey thought “But this doesn't mean that I can't have what I want. Only priests of the light can repel the Shadow progeny, and such skill may be particularly useful in this war. I need it, and I'll take it from you.”

“How...” Rey only managed to mumble.

“A ritual. A sacrifice, you fool little elf.” the ginger grinned coldly “the worthier is the offering, the higher shall be the prize the Darkness will grant me. This is why I choose an elf maiden.” 

That was clever actually, and kind of creepy. Rey had to admit it. Not that being the sacrificial lamb to a fictional bad guy in a fictional ritual has been her plan for the weekend but at least she wasn't at home alone watching Netflix or ranting on Reddit about something. That must have been an improvement, at least she was with real people, even if they were all dressed like idiots.

“Call in the camp physician.” Hux said to Phasma smoothly, the woman rolled her eyes, mumbling a barely audible:  
“Not again...”

“Right...Right...” the red haired priest nodded. He leaned forward, bowing slightly so that Rey could hear him.  
“Hey, sorry, are you over eighteen?” he asked calmly in a whisper, clearly off game.

Rey furrowed her brow, her cheeks still wet. What a weird question. She nodded.

“Good. Thanks.” Hux replied politely before rising up, repeating, louder “Call the camp physician, Phasma.”

Now the elvish girl was clearly perplexed.  
“A physician?”

“Of course. We need to be sure of your purity before the ritual.” he answered like it was the most normal thing ever. His statement made Kylo huff quite loudly.

“My...purity?”

“Yes...” Hux cleared his throat and his voice lowered “Your character is a virgin... Right?”

Rey found herself frowning relentlessly. That was actually more than weird, almost uncomfortable. She swallowed, saying the only thing she managed.  
“Actually I never thought about it.” Yeah, and she never though she should, it was just a game, for Christ's sake.

Hux didn't seemed pleased by her answer. His off game response came a little bit louder.  
“C'mon. You're a priestess of the Light. You're supposed to. Haven't you decided in your background?”

Rey shrugged her shoulders, her lips in a quite uncomfortable thin line while she looked away.  
“Actually I haven't decided...”

“You aren't saying this just to avoid your character's death aren't you?” Hux almost sounded bitter.

“Hey!” Rey almost felt outraged. Maybe she was new at this but she had a quite long history as a D&D egregious player, and being accused of cheating was definitely the last thing she would have allowed to happen “Ok, I get it, I'm a noob, but I'm not that noob. I just didn't think about it, that's all, I thought that deciding about my character's sexual life would have not been that relevant!”

“Well, news flash kid, it is!” Weirdly Hux mirrored her outrage, his voice raising. Rey could se with the corner of her eyes Ben pinching the bridge of his nose while the red haired man continued “So can you please decide?”

“Hey guys, is everything alright?” A voice asked. A man had just entered the tent, Rey had already seen him on the stage, on Maz's side before the game begun. He was tall, pale, probably in his fifties, completely bald and with long skinny legs. Over a quite simple blue tunic he was wearing at his neck a blue led light like it was a pendant. He must have been a staff member, an arbiter, one of those who had the job to be sure everyone were following the rules. The tall skinny man looked at Rey and his eyes widened.  
“Guys, is she alright?” he asked nervously.

The girl nodded nervously.  
“Yeah, sure...It was just an in-game quite dramatic moment.” She reassured him, he nodded.

“Very well, then...” His bald head turned to Hux “Why exactly were you two screaming while clearly off game during game time?” 

“I was preparing a ritual.” The red haired men replied with nonchalance, looking at the arbiter sideways “we just had a little misunderstanding.”

Phasma rolled her eyes, again.

Ben huffed loudly, taking a seat on Rey's side.

“Relax.” He whispered to her “This is going to take long.”

“A ritual...” The arbiter raised an eyebrow eloquently. Hux responded with a confident nod. The other man pointed at the spell book in Hux's hands and gestured him to hand it to him. The ginger huffed, obeying. 

The tall bald man took a long moment to read what the priest had wrote on the pompous spell book, and then, after a few seconds, he simply sighed.  
“Armitage, you creepy fuck.”

Rey watched with evident perplexity as the two man started arguing in front of her.  
“Armitage? Who the fuck is named Armitage?” she manage to murmur to Ben, next to her.

“His mom is from Quebec or something.” The man replied almost in her hear, holding back a laugh.

“Oh. So it's french...Like Hermitage? The Russian museum?” Rey could hardly hide her amusement.

“Yup. It's supposed to...” Ben nodded “But you better don't call him that, he hates it.”

The other people in the tent were basically oblivious of them. 

“How many times I have to tell you, Armie?” the arbiter snorted “We're offering family friendly entertainment. This doesn't mean that you cant play a human sacrifice, but what the fuck, are you obsessed with virgins or something? It's the second time this year that you mention virginity as a requirement for your victims. I already told you, it's a big no no. We're not playing Call of Cthulhu or Vampire the Masquerade here. This is a quite vanilla medieval-fantasy dude, just chill.”

“Sorry if I was trying to bring some gravitas in this silly game, Andy!” Armitage spat bitterly.

“Oh, sure, you're a hero. Shakespeare's Company would be lucky to have you.” The arbiter replied sarcastically “Now, can you all go back to the game please?”

“Wait!”Hux continued “what am I supposed to do with her now that you have basically flunked my ritual?”

“Not my problem dude.” the staff member shrugged his shoulders marching out of the tent “You should have asked to the staff if the ritual was alright and then kidnap her.”

Hux snorted loudly taking his spell book back in his hands.

“Great!” Phasma huffed “Now we've broke the truce for nothing.”

“I know, I know...” Armitage closed his eyes in frustration “I'm an idiot.”

“Andy Snoke is right tho...” Ben muttered “Maybe some stuff can actually make people   
uncomfortable. Are you alright?” he asked Rey

“Yeah, sure. I mean, it's not like he asked me about my real sexual life...” the girl simply replied.

“If you're so sensitive and kind why don't you stopped me when I asked you to kidnap her?” Hux snarled at him.

“I didn't know you were on that virgin thing again!” Kylo replied raising an eyebrow.

“Guys, guys.” Rey raised both of her hands trying to get some attention on herself “I have an idea. Let's pretend none of this happened.”

The trio furrowed their brow almost simultaneously.

“I mean. The whole thing was clearly a misunderstanding.” The girl tried “Let's say that Kylo took me to my camp, we found out that it was under attack and he brought me here to keep me safe, is this okay to you?”

They were all quite surprised, actually weirdly surprised.

“Why do you want to clean up our mess?” Hux asked her, clearly suspicious.

“Well... We're playing together. Why would I want to make this game a mess?” 

“Oh, god. She's so cute I need a drink.” Phasma commented unceremoniously before leaving the tent.

“Fine.” Hux nodded “Thanks, I guess. Now excuse me, I think Phasma needs some help with her armor.”

As the two of them were left alone in the tent Rey took a moment to look at Ben sideways.  
“So...” she started after long seconds of uncomfortable silence “What now?”

“Well...” Ben tilted his head slightly “If you want I can take you to your camp, I mean, your tent is there I suppose, and you'll need to sleep at some point.”

The girl shook her head slightly.  
“Actually I'm going to sleep in the car so...” She stopped talking, noticing him covering a yawn with his gloved hand “are you alright?” 

“Yeah... sorry...” he murmured “I just...I started my shift at four this morning. I'm just tired.”

“What do you do?”

“I'm a bus driver.”

That was definitely unexpected, so unexpected that Rey almost smiled.

“You?”

“I work at Starbucks, and I go to college. Mechanical Engineering.” 

“That's cool.” he smirked “At least the Engineering part. Don't get me wrong. Caramel Macchiato is great, I'm just saying...”

“It's okay... Starbucks wasn't my dream job actually, but at leas I know how to do expensive unhealthy drinks now.”

Ben laughed weakly, it was actually a cute laugh in a way, low, simple and honest. Rey liked it.

“I think I'll go to sleep. I know it's early but... It was a pleasure to play with you, Rey.” He stated after a while, rising from the bench. 

“Do you have a tent?” she asked, out of the blue.

“Nope. I hate tents. I'm going to sleep in my car too.”

Without realizing she was already on her feet.  
“Do you mind if I come with you? I mean, we're both going to the parking lot...”

He almost frowned.  
“No, I mean... Sure. Let's go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, Snoke is not actually that bad, at least here. Sorry if the chapter is a little shorter than usual but I needed te next one to start just after this scene so... Sorry!  
> Thank you all for the comments and the kudos, they're greatly appreciated!  
> If you want, check on my Tumblr: spiegatrixlestrange.  
> It's quite empty at the moment but I'll be definitely more active in the near future.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Considering that this whole story started basically as a joke I'm quite surprised we're already at Chapter 5. Your amazing response surely made me write faster! Thank you again for all the kudos and the comments.  
> I have Sad (not so sad actually) news tho. I realize I'm negecting my other stories so badly I almost feel guilty, so another chapter won't come out until I write at least one chapter of "The Monster who hides behind the mask"  
> If you're into Canon Divergence, drama and unappropriate humor take a look at it. 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/13819188/chapters/31778904
> 
> By the way, here's the new chapter, Enjoy!

“Can I ask you a question?” 

“Sure.”

“ Why the bad guy?” 

They had left behind the playing area and now it wouldn't have been rude to talk off game a little bit louder. Rey wasn't looking at him, her smartphone in her hand to light her way to the parking lot. Ben, on her side, shrugged his shoulder and a vague metallic noise came from his armor.

“You know... It's liberating.” 

“I guess. I never tried.” The girl simply replied “Even in D&D I usually play lawful good character. Once I played a Chaotic Neutral and basically I felt like a criminal.”

He was looking at her with a hint of amusement in his dark eyes.  
“So I must be a criminal. Me, Armie and Bree, I mean Phasma, are playing an evil party at D&D.”

She shook her head with a little grin.  
“Well... If it makes you happy.”

“Honestly, villains are always cooler.”

“No they're not!” she laughed softly.

“Oh my god.” Ben smiled back in vague disbelief “You're such a Gryffindor.” 

Rey stopped, putting dramatically a hand on her chest:  
“I beg your pardon? I'm a Ravenclaw. And let me guess... You're a Slytherin.”

“Of course I am.” He chuckled.

“Favorite Game of Thrones House?”

“Lannisters... Duh.” 

Her brow furrowed in quite ironic content.

“I'm sorry for you, Lion, but us Targaryens will totally kick your ass in the next season.”

“Maybe, but this doesn't hide the fact that Cersei is a far better queen that Daenerys will ever be.” He was teasing her, openly now, with a wide grin on his long pale face.

“How dare you!” Rey replied in a clear, spontaneous laugh. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt that comfortable with someone new. He may have had pretty shitty tastes in fandoms, but he was funny, kind and... Not exactly her type but definitely cute. The mere acknowledgment of being attracted by someone was usually for Rey more than enough to freak out but weirdly she wasn't uncomfortable at all around him. 

They were still laughing while they reached for the parking lot. Ben's black SUV was parked alongside Poe's car, so they walked straight to basically the same spot, keeping arguing playfully about this or that.

“I'm sorry, but I can't agree. Doctor Doom is not and will never be the most awesome Marvel character ever.” She replied to his last statement with a little mischievous smirk. 

“Well, your loss. You clearly don't have the right sensibility to appreciate him.” he said back in a clearly fake expression of distaste while he opened his car. He started slowly to dismantle his outfit. The gloves were the first to go off, but that was the easy part. 

“Do you need a hand?” She asked in a hint of amusement while Ben kept fighting with his metal breastplate. 

“Well... Yes, if you don't mind.”

Rey moved forward, gesturing him to lower himself, she wasn't clearly tall enough to reach for the buckle on the side of his neck that easily. He obeyed in silence, without questioning. 

As the girl found herself with her hands on his shoulder and her face that close to hers she couldn't help but feel like a creep for the rapid look she gave to his full lips, just for a second. C'mon. She didn't knew nothing about this guy. He was older, probably about turning thirty or something. Maybe he had a wife, or a girlfriend. Maybe even kids. For a second her eyes felt on his Adam's apple, while he was swallowing. Maybe she was making him uncomfortable. Her hands unfastened rapidly the clutches of his breastplate. In a few moments he was free. Ben landed the heavy metal piece in the trunk of his SUV, and allowed himself a quite relieved moan while he kept his gambeson on.

“That looks heavy.” Rey was leaning lazily on the side of Poe's car, wincing a little while she took off her silicon elf ears. 

“Well... It is. But at least I don't have to glue anything on my face.” He joked, taking off his bracers. 

“Yeah...” She snorted” That was Poe idea. I'm actually not that much into healers, or into elves for that matter, but since this is my first LARP I took his advice.”

“That is your first LARP? Really?” Ben sounded definitely impressed “I though you had payed somewhere else...”

Rey shook her head. 

“Damn... I cringe at the mere thought of my first event. I was such a noob. I spent two days basically embarrassing myself with as many people I could.” the man admitted opening his car door to sit down and finally take off his boots.

“Ah, C'mon. I can't believe that. I mean, Kylo is awesome. You scared the crap out of me just by staring.” She laughed, looking for Poe's keys in her bag. As she looked back at him raising her glare from the purse, he seemed almost uncomfortable.

“I didn't mean to stare.” he admitted, trying to hide his nervousness, surprisingly, she chuckled.

“Ben. You kidnapped my character. I think that staring isn't the most evil thing Kylo did as a bad guy.”

“Trust me...” he snorted “If you had to lead a camp with Hux for more than two hours you'll be ready to kidnap basically anyone as long as that makes him keep his mouth shut.”

With a chuckle Rey opened Poe's car clumsily, sitting down on the driver seat.

“Do you need anything?” Ben asked “sleeping bag, water?”he asked after a while.

“No, I'm okay...” she replied simply, moving her hands to put her seat back and get a little bit more comfortable. “Thank you...”

“Very well...” he took a moment to look at her sideways before giving her a little grin “Goodnight then, Dragon.”

“Goodnight to you, Lion.” she smiled back “sleep well.”

They both closed their car door almost in unison, but Rey had to hide her face under the soft fabric of her sleeping bag for a while, she couldn't stop smiling.

***

The next morning Rey fond her way to the bathroom pretty easily. Ben's car was already empty when se got up, but her almost desperate need to wash her teeth made her forget about it. She glued back on her elven ears and as soon as she reached for the tavern, desperate for coffee, she almost bumped into Poe and Finn. 

“What the hell, Peanut?!” the black young man almost shouted, luckily it was early, and basically no one was around “Where the hell have you been?!”

“Hey guys...I was sleeping... In the car.” she murmured weakly.

“Since six in the afternoon? Oh, give me a break!” Finn replied.

“Easy love...” Poe shot his boyfriend a gentle smile “She has not ran away with the circus or something. She's an adult. Maybe she had things to do.”

Rey noticed right away the hint of mischievousness in Poe's eyes and swallowed nervously. Finn reacted to his boyfriend suggestion raising dramatically his hand to his mouth.

“Were you with that Emo Fuck?” he hissed, more surprised then actually annoyed.

“Guys, guys.” Rey rose her hands “The camp was under attack when he brought me back. It's not like we could have come in with all the zombies doing their shit. They were like thirty. How is the camp by the way? Did everyone survived?”

“The camp is fine, hon.” Poe smirked. It was like he couldn't quite hide a vague amusement on his face.

“Don't change the subject.” Finn, of course, wouldn't let it go “you were with the wannabe Prince of Darkness, weren't you?”

“Well...” the girl didn't have the time to reply, Poe interrupted her with ha huge cocky smile on his face.

“Told ya, love. You owe me twenty gold pieces.”

Rey's eyes widened.

“You've placed bids? On me?”

“Not exactly on you, Sweetheart. Just about you spending the night with His Emoness.” Poe clarified, openly delighted. He circled her shoulders with his arm, totally lost in the gossip by now “How is he? Did you have fun? Was he good? Is he... Proportionate? I mean...”

“Oh my Guys, you're the worst.” The girl only managed to massage the bridge of her nose “Nothing happened. We just talked.” 

Somehow her two friends looked almost disappointed, even Finn.

“So... what did you do for like...five hours with him?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

“We played, we talked about Game of Thrones....” 

“God, what a nerd.” Poe muttered, clearly displeased. 

“Me or him?” Rey asked.

“Both.” Finn and Poe replied in unison. 

“At least I haven't lost my on-game money.” Finn huffed, obtaining in return just a clearly annoyed look from Rey.

In the meantime, as he was summoned, Kylo, already in his armor, walked into the tavern, followed as always by Phasma and Hux. The Imperial trio glared rapidly at Rey, greeting her just with a small nod before sitting at their usual table.

Poe move forward to them with a huge smile the trio wasn't clearly ready for. Hux looked at him like the elven prince had grew another head over night, Kylo ignored him stiffly and Phasma rolled her eyes enough to make them white.

“Gentlemen, M'lady.” he greeted them “I really need to thank you. I heard you saved my sweet little sister last night.”

Hux's eyes narrowed.  
“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

“And Lord Ren.” Poe insisted, if possible his smile grew even wider “Thank you for taking such a  
good care of her.”

Luckily Kylo was totally in character already, he replied just with an indifferent nod, but that wasn't enough to make Rey wish for the floor to crack and swallow her. She forced a huge smile on her face and grabbed not so gently Poe by the elbow.  
“Dear brother, Why don't you grab some breakfast while I talk to Lord Hux? You know...Priests stuff.”

“Of course, Kiriel...” the man replied in a chuckle.

As he walked away Rey felt the need to clear her throat.  
“So...” she started, searching desperately to change subject “We're going to see the Oracle this morning, right?”

The first response was a chorus of raised eyebrows.

“You want to come with us?” Hux was clearly perplexed.

“Well...Yeah...” the girl replied like it was obvious “We're going to ask about the prophecy, right?”

“Princess, listen...” Phasma started, she looked like keeping her voice gentle was actually an effort “It's not like we don't appreciate your offer but.... We're not on the same side. We're Imperials. We just don't...,Mingle. Especially with your kind.”

Rey's brow furrowed in perplexity.  
“Look, it's not like I'm asking you to have a picnic. If the prophecy is right we must work together whether we like it or not so...” She tried another huge encouraging smile “Let's kick some shadowy ass.”

Somehow her enthusiasm made it worst for the trio. Kylo, as always, didn't reply, while Phasma and Huxd shared a long resigned sigh.

***  
It was about midday when the group decided to move. Unfortunately for the Imperial trio Poe and Finn had decided to come along, determined to not leave Rey's side this time. 

As they started walking trough the woods, keeping a quite regular formation – Poe, the ranger, in the front, Finn and Phasma, two warriors, just behind him, Hux and Rey, clerics, in the middle, and Kylo, another warrior, closing the line – Rey noticed a quite creepy particular pretty soon. Andy Snoke, the arbiter, was following them silently trough the trees, his blue led necklace turned on, meaning he was off game, and that the characters couldn't actually see him. 

Trying desperately to be a good payer the girl convinced herself to ignore him, even if his presence made her nervous. That probably meant trouble, at least on game trouble.

The Oracle wasn't supposed to be that far away. Even if that was a quite “out of the map” mission, the playing area wasn't supposed to be that big after all.

They followed a little creek for a while, and when the silence become almost unbearable, Rey cleared his throat shyly.  
“So...” she asked in a low voice “How's the oracle?”

“Weird.” 

“Creepy.” Phasma and Finn replied at the same time, giving each other an annoyed look. Maybe that was the first time they've actually played together since Finn's 'betrayal' five years prior.

The whole atmosphere was a little tense, Rey recognized. Maybe the two groups weren't ready to play together yet, but right now, especially with an arbiter with them, that didn't counted.

“Weird how, Lady Phasma?” she asked hesitantly-

“I don't know, Princess. Is knowing people's future a normal thing in Yavinia?”

“I can't say it is, M'lady.”

“Exactly, plus, this woman basically acts like everyone who doesn't have her same knowledge of things is basically a mindless child.” Phasma continued with a little wince.

“Nice...” Rey was about to comment when a Poe raised is hand. The Oracle's altar, a quite big table of fake stone surrounded in candles, feathers and other witchy stuff was on sight but, they all noticed, it was empty. 

“Something's wrong.” the Ranger had only time to say before a loud shrieking noise came out of the woods around them, soon followed by many more. 

“Shit.” Phasma only commented, and in a moment Rey found herself back to back with Hux, surrounded by the rest of the group as they got in defensive formation.  
Poe dropped unceremoniously his bow only to take his sword from his belt instead, and then, they appeared.

Half a dozen on NPCs came out slowly from behind the trees, leaded by a taller one, another Shadow Monster, Rey recognized him. Too bad she hadn't another of those sweet Power Potions.

The usual totally unreasonable panic, maybe her character's panic, hit her. As the undead NPCs slowly moved forward them her brain couldn't help but process any information she knew about undead. Shit, she only played a Cleric once in D&D but...Wait. Suddenly something came to her mind. Something that worked pretty good in D&D but here... Well, it was worth a try.

The red led light on Kylo's sword was already turned on, she realized, he was her safest bet. She putted a hand on his shoulder.  
“ I need to get close to one of them.” She sounded particularly determined.

“Kiriel! Stay were you are!” Finn shouted firmly.

“Storm, I need to try something!” she shouted back.

“Fine...” Kylo replied, his voice thick out of pre-battle tension “small one or big one?”

“Small one.”

“Fine. Stay close.”

Swiftly Kylo moved out of the formation, Phasma rapidly took his place as the four warriors moved closer around Hux. 

The dark paladin moved forward slowly, Rey right behind him, approaching cautiously the closest undead NPC. Undead were quite slow as long as their opponents were far away, but as soon as Kylo and Rey were close enough the creature screamed in hunger and rushed toward them, obtaining only a couple of blows form Kylo in return. 

The battle had started behind them, but the other NPCs seemed to focused on their companion to come and help their ally.

The undead hit Kylo's armor with his long fake claws, stealing from his lips a sudden fake moan of pain. 

“If you want to do something, Princess, do it now.” He growled at her. She waited for him to hit the creature again and then moved forward, as swiftly as she could from behind Kylo's back. She landed the hand holding her sacred Symbol on the NPC's chest, and inhaled sharply.

“By the power of the Light I shall heal your wounds!” she almost screamed, casting one of his healing spells. 

Luckily, it worked exactly like in D&D, and the creature started screaming loudly, in fictional agonizing pain, giving Kylo enough time to finish him off.

Rey couldn't help but smile, looking at her own hands with a huge grin on her face. It worked! Her enthusiasm had to wait tho, she realized as Kylo took her harm to drag her behind him once again. 

“You take far too much risks for being a cleric.” He shouted to her, parring a blow directed at her from another NPC.

“I need to get to Hux now!” she replied. Her eyes were on the Shadow Monster now. If her plan had worked on the small ones, the big one must had the same weakness too.

“Oh, c'mon...” Kylo hissed, struggling to move forward taking another blow on his armor. As soon as they got close enough Poe grabbed Rey unceremoniously dragging her behind the defense line. 

“Is everyone allright?” she asked

“Yes!” Phasma, Finn and Hux shouted in unison.

“Sort of...” Poe groaned parring a blow.

“Hold on!” Rey shouted back, only now turning her head to the red haired man on her side “Hux!” she pointed at the Shadow Monster “Let's heal the crap out of that thing!”

Weirdly, for the first time in two days, the other cleric smiled, a wide, pleased smile. He raised the sacred symbol in his hand.

With a surprising coordination the whole party moved forward to the Shadow Monster. Finn raised his shield to make way for the clerics, protecting them from the creature claws, as they started chanting their spells. As their two sacred symbols touched the big fake monster it started to squirm, screaming loudly in agonizing pain. 

They didn't even realized that Snoke, the arbiter, had moved forward, kneeling beside them.

“Hey guys...” he whispered almost awkwardly, he was quite hard to hear in all that mess “I need to know how many Mana Points you're using.”The two clerics exchanged a perplex look.

“I don't know... All of them?” Rey murmured.

“It's fine to me.” Hux nodded, as the battle kept going behind them.

“Excellent. How many have you left?” Snoke continued.

“Five.” the girl said.

“Twenty two.” the ginger haired man replied.

“Damn!” Rey couldn't help but comment, getting ha little smirk form Hux in return.

“Perfect guys, thanks.” The arbiter nodded “Keep going.”

As they kept casting their spell, all of a sudden the Shadow Monster screamed even loudly, falling clumsily on the grass with a painful groan, and all the other undead NPCs with him. 

The six of them found themselves surrounded all of a sudden by dead enemies, the battle was surprisingly over. 

All of them took a moment to catch their breath, looking at each other incredulously. A few step away Snoke clapped his hands slowly, a pleased smirk on his face.

“Well...We did it...Somehow.” Hux mumbled, his eyes still wide. 

Poe and Finn were looking at Rey with huge smiles on her faces.

“That's my girl!” the elven prince shouted taking the her in his arms and spinning her around. As they stopped, Rey opened her eyes only to find Kylo looking at her, trying hard to contain a smile from ear to ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a particular thank you goes to Norehnka, for giving me the idea of Poe and Finn placing bets on Rey spending the night with Ben XD No need to despair, Poe, maybe nex time you'll be lucky!  
> Thank you again for the idea, Darling, It made me so happy to put a reader's suggestion in the story!  
> Kudos, Comments, and Suggestion (Bring it on!) are always very welcome!
> 
> Tumblr: spiegatrixlestrange


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So... That was quick! I thought I would have spent more time writing the other fic but yet, here we are!  
> I'm really excited about this chapter for two reasons:  
> 1- Mama Leia is finally here!  
> 2- First completely IRL chapter!  
> I hope you'll have fun reading it at leas as much as i had writing!

Alderaan Hollow was easily the smallest town Rey had ever lived in. It was not necessarily a bad thing though. Growing up in foster homes, teeming, crowded and overflowing with kids, had taught her the value of quiet and the importance of space. 

Her morning shift had started before dawn, as it did every Monday. It was unlike any other Monday though. The girl was still exhausted and sporting heavy, dark circles around and under her eyes. It was enough proof that she had enjoyed her weekend far too much.

She could not believe she had spent the last two days dressed like an idiot shouting spells in the face of fake monsters and that she had loved it. A lot. She could not recall the last time she had such fun.

Rey was serving another Frappuccino when one of her most devoted costumers came in. Leia Organa was a small, exuberant woman at the beginning of her sixties and she mas the mayor of their small town. The town hall was located close, just on the other side of the street, so she made it a habit, one out of convenience and made sure to visit the small coffee shop almost on a daily basis.

She approached the counter, her white tailleur prim, smoothed and perfect as always. She greeted Rey as she had done almost every morning in the last two years.

“Rey!” Mayor Organa smiled, “my sweet angel of coffee!”

“Good morning Madam Mayor.” the girl replied politely as usual “the usual double espresso?”

The older woman sagged, sighing a little too dramatically as she shrugged her shoulders.

“You know what? I really need something sweeter today. My son is coming to have breakfast with me.”

Rey winced, offering her sympathy. 

“Tough guy to deal with?”

The other woman nodded briefly, her face crumpled for a moment; a vacant look appeared in her shiny eyes. 

“Do not get me wrong, he is a sweetheart but...well...when you become a mother you will know what I mean. I think I will go with a cinnamon dolce latte. And you know what? Not one but two glazed donuts,” she proclaimed, pointing to the sugary treats.

Rey was entirely too focused on the order and the counter to notice the door was opening again and the tall figure approaching Leia.

“Hey mom...”

Rey's fingers stopped moving for just one second. The voice sounded familiar but it was quite new and definitely out of context for her to recognize it right away.

Slowly, she raised her eyes from the counter, her mouth drying at the sight in front of her.

Kylo, no, Ben, was standing there donning an unbuttoned tartan flannel shirt which displayed another metal band t-shirt beneath it. 

“Hey, honey...” Leia replied kindly, “so I am having a couple of glazed donuts. What do you want to eat for breakfast?”

“Rey...” it was not the reply meant for his mother. The timing of the young man’s answer was the worst possible he realized. 

His eyes focused on her standing behind the counter, he was looked like a deer caught in headlights, paralyzed, his eyes wide open as he was about to face certain death. 

He cleared his throat nervously, “Uh- hey, Rey. How is it going?”

“Hi Ben.” she answered with an uncontrollably wide smile.

“So you know each other...” Leia's voice thankfully distracted Ben from any further embarrassing attempts to say something else.

“Yes mom, Rey's a larper too. We played together last weekend.”

Rey smiled hesitantly at Leia, the older woman did not look like she had any intention to freak out or to call her ‘weirdo.’

“Cool!” She said instead, smiling warmly at her “what character do you play?”

“An elf...” Rey replied vaguely, surprised.

“Cool! More like a Galadriel or more like the cinematic version of Arwen?”

The younger girl clearly had not seen that coming. Mayor Organa knew Tolkien. She guessed nerdiness ran in the family.

“Well, I don't know...” she admitted, “I'm definitely not graceful enough for being one of them”

“Grace is overrated, sweetheart,” Leia shot her a knowing look, “You're just like me, we're more like Eowyn. We are beautiful and we kick ass! I mean, c'mon, look at you, you are gorgeous! Isn't she gorgeous, Ben?”

Well, that escalated quickly. So quickly that Ben found himself totally unprepared to answer, his jaw dropped in panic as the tip of his ears, mostly covered by the thick waves of his hair, turned bright red.

“Anyway,” Leia ignored the sudden general uneasiness with a great warm smile “You two should totally date. I always wanted half elven grandsons.”

In that moment, Rey's colleague appeared from behind her and placed Mayor Organa's order on the counter.

“Cinnamon Dolce Latte and glazed donuts for the Madam Mayor.” he announced.

“Oh, thank god!” Ben, unable to find the strength to say anything else, murmured. 

Leia grabbed his order and shot Rey a mischievous, yet weirdly kind smile before moving away to a table at the end of the room.

The two of them remained silent for a while, looking anywhere but at the other, until Rey cleared her throat.

“So,” she started nervously, “What can I get you?”

“Do you serve alcohol?” he replied wincing, he grimaced whilst trying desperately to smile.

“Sorry, I can't help you with that...” Rey's face was paralyzed in an uncomfortable smile.

“Sorry for my mom, she's...”

“Nosy?”

“I would have said Italian but....”

“Oh...”

“No, it’s okay.” Ben finally found the strength to smirk “In a way it's basically the same thing.”

“Okay, so a Caramel Macchiato, I guess...” she tried nervously to change subject.

“Oh, yes please and an apple pie.”

Rey nodded far too quickly, her eyes rushing to the counter again. They waited in uncomfortable silence until his order was ready. As she handed him his giant mug he cleared his throat again.

“Sorry again for my mom.”

“It's okay, really.” her smile felt a little more natural.

“So,” he swallowed a little too nervously, “See you around, Dragon.”

Her playful grin grew a little too wide on her face.

“See you, Lion.” 

He smiled back as he moved away from the counter. He was a couple of steps away when he turned to look in her direction, not directly at her though.

“Rey, um...is it okay if I add you on Facebook?”

Ben swallowed nervously and it appeared as if the effort to deliver the line as smoothly as he had was going to result in a stroke.

The girl nodded quickly.

“Yes, sure.”

***

Monday evenings had been D&D night at Poe and Finn's place for the last five years.

Amilyn had not yet returned to town from her niece's wedding, so there were only Rey, Finn, Jess, and Poe. Poe, as always, sat hidden behind his Dungeon Master screen. 

The session went down smoothly, except for the fact that Rey was very distracted, her eyes permanently down cast on her phone. Poe and Finn started to worry when she rolled two twenties in a row and did not move or even cheer.

The girl clearly had something else on her mind. In a way, she could not help but feel almost like a stalker by the way her eyes were glued on Ben Solo's Facebook page. She could not look away. 

His profile picture was not as she expected it. Even if not conventionally handsome, she could not help but think that he was clearly attractive, in an unusual yet quite evident way, and yet, his profile picture wasn't showing a hint of self-esteem about his own appearance.

In the picture, taken obviously by someone else, he was playing dramatically, or better yet, wrestling, with a huge fluffy, hairy dog. It was probably a Leonberger but she was not an expert. He was baring his teeth in a wild, but obviously fake, fury. She grinned. 

She scrolled trough his previous profile pictures, he was always as silly as in the first one. In one, he was clearly photo bombing behind a cute selfie of Hux and Phasma, looking at his red haired friend as if he was about to bite his head, his mouth spread wide open.

In the next one, she thought was probably taken at a comic con; he was posing, pouting his lips into an awkward duck face beside a guy dressed in a fairly accurate cosplay of Tywin Lannister.

The tone of the pictures was the same: Ben falling from a skateboard, Ben tormenting Hux in various ways while Phasma laughed in the background, Ben looking in exasperated awe at a huge cheeseburger that was actually bigger than his head.

Well, Rey's profile pictures were not so different. In most of them, she was not wearing any make up or even smiling for that matter. In most of them, she was eating something as gracelessly as possible or making faces. In some she was in the middle of pretending to fight with her friends, so clearly, she was not in any position to judge.

Too bad, she thought.

She would have liked to look at him sitting still and just being pretty for a few seconds. Weirdly enough, his funny profile pictures were not a turn off for her, like at all.

“And then Rey's character died!” Poe said dramatically, louder than before, as to be sure he caught the girl's attention. 

She almost fell from her chair in surprise.

“What? Wait! What happened?” she squealed, sitting back. 

“Nothing, honey. I was just trying to figure out if you were actually here with us,” he smirked.

“You've looked at your phone like it was a bacon cheeseburger for almost an hour, Peanut,” Finn agreed with his boyfriend.

“Is there something you need to share with us?”

“Oh, c'mon guys, leave her alone!” Jess, who sat beside her, finally intervened; Rey hoped she was actually trying to help when she said,

“She's just stalking some guy on Facebook.”

The sudden revelation generated a series of high squeals and barely hidden laughs.

“Tell me Jess; is he tall, big, with black hair and a big nose?” Poe asked vaguely, as if he was not actually interested.

The other girl nodded briefly, shooting Rey a curious look.

“Am I missing something?”

“Excellent question, Jess.” Poe remarked, “Tell us, Rey, are we missing something?”

The girl let out an exasperated groan, dropping her face into her hands. 

“God guys, why don't you mind your own business?”

“Your sex life or lack of is totally our business, dear. We are your friends. We care about your happiness.” Poe nodded knowingly.

“Maybe you care a little too much,” Rey snorted, her eyes narrowing.

“So...” the older man started again “How is Ben? Are you two sexting already?”

“Hold on, hold on!” Jess raised her hands. 

“Who's Ben? Is he nice? Is he a nerd? Would he be willing to play a Mage? God, I'd love to have a mage in this party.”

“Ben is a Larper Rey met last weekend,” Finn replied in Rey's place, “and to answer your questions- no, yes, and no, definitely not.”

Jess looked disappointed.

“Enough everyone, let's focus on the thing that matters here. So, Rey, did he ask you out? Or did you ask him out instead? Will you have dinner or coffee? Will you get a Brazilian? Do you know where babies come from? Do you need the Talk?”

A bunch of dices hit Poe in the face.

“Oh my god you're such a jerk!” Rey almost spat.

“Totally! This is why you love me so much,” the man replied with a charming smile “by the way, jokes aside...”

“Totally not funny jokes,” Rey groaned. 

“Anyway, there'll be a costume party at Maz's castle this Saturday. The theme is ‘Back to the Future.’ Why don't you ask Ben to join us? Cause you know, we're totally going.”

Rey's brow furrowed.

“Are we?”

“Of course we are Peanut,” Finn answered with a smile.

Rey pinched her nose, sighing loudly as she massaged her head with her forefinger.

“Guys, please.”

“Can you handle inviting him or should I do it myself?” Poe asked, smirking.

Rey rolled her eyes almost desperately, exhaling loudly. 

“Fine, fine, I'll do it!”

Poe and Finn cheered a little too loudly for her taste.

***

Rey was back home a few minutes after midnight and she found herself looking nervously at her phone while she was already in bed, biting her lower lip furiously.

You know what? She thought to herself. 

Fuck it.

She opened Ben's messenger, the screen very empty, and then started typing before deleting it all for a while.

One frustrated sob later, she just wrote,

“Hey.”

Wow. That was not awkward at all. Rey repressed the need to throw her phone away while it beeped almost instantly.

“Oh, hi.” Ben wrote back.

“Oh, sorry, did I wake you?”

“Nope, I just finished my shift.”

“Good. Are you tired?”

“A little. You? How was work?”

“The usual. Anyway, I was wondering... do you have plans for Saturday?”

It took a little more time for him to answer this time.

“Nothing in particular. Why?”

Rey chewed her lip nervously.

“Do you like costume parties?”

“It depends on the costumes I guess...”

“Back to the Future night at Maz's. Interested?”

“OMG yes, I love those movies.”

“LOL, same...see you there?”

Rey's breath caught in her throat. Had she been casual enough? After a few moments, he answered.

“Sure, see you there.” 

He followed it up with a smiley face. Weird. Ben did not look like an emoji kind of guy.

“Great. I work the morning shift tomorrow, so goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Dragon.” He sent her a winky face alongside it. Rey found herself smiling like an idiot.

“Sleep well, Lion.” She could not help but reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the adorable AlbaStarGazer for beta reading this chapter. Gosh, I bet you can tell the difference, she did an amazing job helping me!   
> Take a look at her amazing story, Wolves. 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858335/chapters/31878306
> 
> As always comments, suggestions, theories and kudos are greatly appreciated.  
> Thank you for reading, see you soon!
> 
> Tumblr: spiegatrixlestrange


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. So, I know it took a little bit longer then usual but Spring Break is over, unfortuately :(   
> As always, a special thanks to AlbaStarGazer, a dear friend and an incredible beta reader who also helped me editing this chapter making me look like I actually know what I'm doing here XD   
> If you're into Reylo AUs take a look at her wonderful Fic Wolves here on Ao3
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/13858335/chapters/31878306

Bree, also known as Phasma’s and Armitage also known as Hux’s apartment always smelled like fresh flowers. It sat atop their very own flower shop and depending on what was in season, the intoxicating scent of daisies, roses or petunias wafted through the small appartment. 

As the woman entered her home, arms full with bags of groceries, she heard not one, but two, familiar voices resonating from the living room. 

“Careful with that, you should put some white in that pink or your chaos space marines will look they are blushing all the time,” Armie said, mocking his voice. 

“How dare you judge my marine’s feelings? Perhaps it is your attitude that is making them uncomfortable,” the other man replied with faux, shocked indignity. 

Both men laughed. 

Unable to resist the urge, Bree rolled her eyes. There was nothing wrong with Ben being in their home, obviously, but he was there often, perhaps too often. In the last month, his visits had dangerously increased and he had de facto become a third wheel, latching onto the couple. God knows why. Perhaps it had something to do with his parents, another ridiculous fight between the members of the dissonant Solo family. 

“I am home!” the woman shouted, alerting the men of her presence and approached the living room, heavy bags still in her hands.

“Hello Bree.”

“Hi honey.”

The two men were obviously distracted when they replied in muted unison. 

As soon as she rounded upon them, Phasma realised why. Partially painted Warhammer miniatures covered the dining room table in its entirety; the couch was all but lost under a ton of empty boxes. Ben and Armie were sat hunched over in deep concentration as they delicately painted various pieces of their respective armies with special care. Bree fought against the initial annoyance of the mess they had created.

Moving forward, she casually kissed her boyfriend’s cheek, albeit careful not to stain her shirt with the painted pieces on the table.

“So, are you two going to be long? You know, we are supposed to eat at some point,” she huffed out, eyeing the men. 

“Ben wanted to order pizza,” Armie replied blankly, still engrossed and focused only on the work in front of him.

Bree fought relentlessly against rolling her eyes again. Ben had dined with them six times in the last two weeks. It almost felt like she had to ask him for permission to spend some alone time with her man.

She was in drastic need of a solution to her situation. 

“So,” She placed the bags of groceries carelessly on the couch, on top of their mountain of precious boxes, and pushed them aside to claim a corner for herself, she sat gracefully.

“Any plans for the weekend?”

“There is a party at Maz’s,” Ben replied quietly, almost casually, “I think I will go.”

Bree’s thin, blonde eyebrows arched in surprise.

“Since when do you go to parties?”

“Since the elf girl invited him,” Armie disguised his answer under a fake cough or two and received an openly annoyed glare from Ben in response. 

“The elf girl,” Phasma mused, genuinely surprised at the answer, “Are you fucking the elf girl?”

Ben’s fiery eyes landed on hers, they were somewhere deep between embarrassment and outrage.

“Bree, why are you always so vulgar?” He admonished.

“I do not know, Bennie, why are you always such a pussy?” She asked in return and raised her chin at him in defiance. “I only asked if you were fucking her, sorry if my language hurt your fluffy feelings.”

Almost wincing, the black haired man shrugged his shoulders, an uneasy expression upon his face. 

As always, Armitage refused to take sides, he focused on his painting and chose not to look between the two warring sides, losing himself instead to the rhythmic strokes of his tiny paintbrush. 

The room fell silent again; the two men were clearly engrossed and too interested in their hobby to start any kind of conversation. 

Phasma wondered what she would have to do to gain her boyfriend’s attention. What if she started to undress and jumped upon Armie, surely that would garner his focus. No. Ben, the incessantly shy man would have been embarrassed enough to leave but the tactic was too risky. The last time she had acted so forward was when they were camping and Armitage mumbled for days about not being a sexual object after it, frustrating her beyond reason. 

No, she was not in the mood for an avoidable and probable never-ending argument.

A better solution was needed, a more permanent solution, so she could secure more alone time with her boyfriend.

Bree stared at her phone intently. The elf girl. Ben clearly needed to get laid and she needed something to distract him long enough from his ridiculous, over attached bromance he and Armie shared. Maybe it was a long shot, but it was worth a try. 

She eyed the two, still busy in their endeavour, and inconspicuously opened Facebook, an unreadable expression on her face. For once, she was actually grateful they were ignoring her.

What was that idiot’s name again? Oh, yes, Poe, Poe Dameron. They were not even friends, they did not even like each other, but desperate times called for desperate measures, right?

After opening his Facebook messenger, she took a deep breath and began typing.

“Hey, how is it going asshat?” Bree attempted to hide a smirk. 

A few minutes passed before her phone pinged with a response.

“I didn’t know the spawn of Satan had Facebook. What do you want Phasma?”

Poe’s reply was just as exactly as she envisioned it. The man gave as good as he got. 

“We need to talk,” she typed back. 

“Oh my god. Why? Since when?” 

She rolled her eyes at his dramatics.

“Shut up and listen! Your friend, Kiriel or whatever, is she single?

The question must have took Dameron by surprise, he took his time to answer and she grew impatient with every second that passed. 

“Yes, why?” he finally replied.

“What is going on between her and Ben?” She asked instead.

“I do not know, what has he told you?”

Bree rolled her eyes and replied with another question.

“I do not know, not much, what has she told you?”

“God, Phas, what the hell do you want?”  
She could feel Dameron’s frustration through the screen; she chuckled quietly in delight and typed again.

“I am going to be honest with you about this, Dameron. Ben really needs someone to spend his free time with, someone that is not my boyfriend.”

“Third wheel?”

“You have no idea.”

She scowled at Ben and Armie.

“Mm, well Phas, I have nothing against it but your sudden concern in the matter gives me the creeps. You know, considering that you are your friends are like the unholy trinity. There must me a catch here. Is he a serial killer?”

Phasma scoffed.

Ben Solo was indeed a weirdo, but he was the furthest you could get from a serial killer. 

“Last time I checked, he was not.”

Poe was quick to respond.

“Is he a drug dealer?”

Bree could not help the snort that emanated from her; she rolled her eyes over Poe’s incessant and ridiculous inquiries.

“Dude, he is a normal person. He is painting Warhammer miniatures in front of me right now. His only dark secret is that he is an overgrown twelve year old who likes miniatures games as far as I know.”

After a long, pondered moment of silence, her phone lit up again, revealing Poe’s answer.

“Fine, let’s do this. I will sign up for this unholy alliance.”

The blonde woman smirked coyly, silently rejoicing as she gazed down at the screen.

“Good,” she wrote, “How do we start?”

“Well, there is a party this Saturday...”

***

 

Before Ben knew it, it was Saturday. The week had flown by. Day by day, he felt the tension within himself growing and his only response to it was to acknowledge it with a nervous annoyance. 

Ben was not a womaniser, never had been, but he was not a total failure either. A ladies’ man he was not. In his thirty-one years of life, he only had been in a few, not particularly long, relationships. They usually started with some girl showing an unusual amount of interest in him and ended with that interest fading away.

Now, there was this girl, a girl he barely knew, and yet he could not stop thinking about her. She was pretty, uncommonly and clearly so and trying to deny that simple face to himself was beyond ridiculous. However, it was not just that. She was funny and they shared so much in common, she might have been the nerdiest woman he had ever met. Well, maybe her tastes in fandoms were quite shit but who cared? Not him. 

The most worrying thing though was not the fact he liked her. Being Ben, the normal human male was, he thought with his penis more so than not, indulging in the idea of being with someone he was attracted to and he was attracted to Rey, he really was. It was normal, he knew that, it was probably the most normal thing in life and yet with this girl, with Rey, even though he barely knew her, his brain was working differently. 

Of course, his penis still ruled him and he thought of her often in that way, it was hard not to but there was more. He could not stop fantasising about them watching Star Trek, cuddling together on his couch or them playing Mario Kart whilst laughing and playfully challenging each other. He bet Rey was competitive. All of it, the idea of being with her both sexually and romantically and spending time with her, getting to know her, was enough to make him anxious.

They had barely spoke to each other since she had invited him to the party. He had open her Facebook page more than a few times that week and yet he could not think of anything he deeded clever or funny enough to send to her.

Starting conversations with cute, almost strangers, was clearly not part of his skillset. Damn, if only he could have some real life XP to spend on that. Enough, that thought was clearly pathetic even for his standards; he fought with the zipper of the vintage leather jacket Bree had all but commanded him to wear that night.

Ben could not help but look in the mirror. Between the light blue jeans, white shirt and eighties leather jacket, he looked like he just came out from an a-Ha concert and he was not sure if he liked it or not, probably not. 

Well, at least he was not roped into wearing something from the sixties, which would have been too much for his taste. Nevertheless, it was not as if the party’s theme offered much choice. Back to the Future offered only a limited choice of time periods to pick from.

Ben was already seated in his SUV when he realized there was something weird about his night. Armitage and Bree had not called him to ask for a ride for the first time in years. Armie hated to drive and Phas hated not being able to drink at a party so it was more than common for them to ask him to drive them around.  
Maybe there was something wrong.

“Siri, call Hux,” he said just loud enough, his hands perched on the steering wheel.

After a few moments of waiting Armitage picked up.

“Hey,” he greeted Ben without much enthusiasm. That was odd.

“Hey Armie,” Solo started, “Do you need a ride?”

“Mm, well…” Armie sounded tempted.

“Is it Ben?” Phasma's voice rang out in the background.

“Yes, he wants to know if we need a-”

“Gimme that!”

Weird noises came out of the speakers, it sounded to Ben like his two friends were wrestling for the phone. It was easy to predict who would win.

“Hey Ben, what do you want?” Bree's voice asked a little bit too loudly and politely to be genuine.

“You're such a bully!” Armie's voice protested in the background.

“Shut up!”

“Guys, is everything alright? Do you need a ride?” Ben asked quietly, still focused on driving.

“No, we are okay darling, thank you.” Phasma sounded cheekier than usual.

And did she just call him darling? Well, that was new, there was definitely something going on.

“Bree, are you okay? You sound weird.”

“Yup, everything is okay Ben, never been better. See you there.”

“O-Okay.” 

Ben’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“See you there.”

On the other side of the now ended phone call, Bree took a moment to give to her boyfriend a determined, annoyed look. She narrowed her eyes at him. 

“If you interfere with this another time, Armie, I swear to God I'll buy a strap-on.”

The red haired man swallowed in evident panic.

***

Poe's hands were sifting through and fixing Rey's hair without permission for the third time in the last ten minutes. What was wrong with him? Her hair was fashioned in a damn ponytail, nothing too complex, what the hell could possibly be wrong about that? In a frustrated groan, the girl moved away and scowled at her friend with narrowed eyes.

“Poe, stop it.”

“Why the hell are you always this sloppy?” he asked with a grin, and moved instead to fix her sixties inspired skirt.

“I am not sloppy, I am casual. You on the other and will get a very casual punch in the face if you don't keep your damn hands for yourself.”

“You sound pretty nervous, Peanut.” Finn admitted.

He took another sip of his drink, comfortably seated on a low couch near to one of the best tables in Maz's club. He was wearing a gorgeous seventeenth century inspired outfit and an awesome cowboy hat.

“I wouldn't be this nervous if your boyfriend would simply stop touching me!” She almost screamed the last few words in Poe's face, but he did not seemed to mind.

“You need a drink, honey,” he remarked gently and as politely as possible, shooting her a charming smile as he moved to the bar.

Rey sank ungracefully into the couch beside Finn with a loud groan. 

“I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to kill your boyfriend,” she declared honestly.

“Of course you will Peanut.” Finn nodded absently.

He nodded at her lap 

“Just close your legs, Would you? I know you are not used to that but you are wearing a skirt and I do not think you want to share the sight of your panties with the whole club.”

Rey shot him a fiercely annoyed glare and swiftly regained her composure, muttering a barely audible “I hate skirts” under her breath.

As Poe returned carrying drinks in his hands, the girl noticed him looking intently at something or someone across the room. Her brow furrowed when she found Phasma at the end of his friend's stare. The two exchanged a cold, meaningful glare and a little smirk that unnerved Rey. 

“What is going on?” she whispered into Finn's ear, but he ignored her and just shrugged his shoulders.

Poe shoved what looked like a far too pink Cosmopolitan in her hands and Rey took his first sip in silence, her narrowed eyes locked on him.

He acted as casual as possible, swallowing a long swig of his beer, his eyes back on Phasma on the other side of the dance floor.

“Guys, what the hell is going on?” Rey raised her voice, trying to get her friends attention.

“Nothing honey,” Poe replied with a smile, his eyes still on the blonde woman.

The whole situation seemed to have some sort of spy story vibe to it and it made Rey far too uncomfortable.

***

On the other side of the dance floor, stiffly seated on a couch, Armitage, in his eighteenth century inspired suit was looking sideways at his girlfriend with a little annoyed expression on his face. 

“Do you really need to look at Dameron that much? You two look like you're about to go to the bathroom and have a quickie.”

Bree rolled her eyes, landing a hand on the redhead's shoulder, lazily teasing him as she brushed his pale earlobe with the tip of her finger.

“Jealous?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. 

Armie focused his glare on the screen of his phone.

“Not particularly,” he mumbled stiffly.

“And why not?” the woman kept teasing him with a devilish smirk on her face.

“Last time I checked he was gay and you had a vagina, love,” he said with such calmness and politeness that it made Bree huff a little.

“You are no fun,” she remarked bluntly.

“If you wanted a dysfunctional relationship with someone possessive and unstable you should have picked Ben.” Armie declared with nonchalance, making her brow furrow.

“Why are you bringing up Ben now?”

“Because he just sent me a text. He is in the parking lot, and he is freaking out because he thinks he looks like an idiot. He does not want to come in. Stable and balanced as always.”

Bree pinched the bridge of her nose with an annoyed snarl.

“For the love of God,” She nearly growled, grabbing her phone from her purse. She typed a message to Poe as fast as she could:

“The mission is at risk. He is outside in the parking lot but he might not come in. Send her out, do something.”

***

Rey could not help but feel that that night was growing weirder and weirder. First Poe's staring competition with Phas, now he asked her to do him a favour and to go check his car where he said he had forgot his wallet.

With a little perplexed expression on her face, the girl remembered just how Poe had paid for her drink just twenty minutes before. What the fuck? Surely, he must have had his wallet with him, why had he...

She was clearly too focused on her train of thought to notice she was about to bump into someone. Someone tall, imposing and with a nervous look on his face.

“Holy...” Rey felt her balance go to hell, thanks to that ridiculous pair of heels Poe and Finn had forced her to wear. She was almost about to fall when a long arm came forward to help and she found herself grabbing it like a damn koala bear, inhaling sharply.

When she found the strength to look at the arm's owner, she swallowed, her mind working almost relentlessly to look less embarrassed.

“Hey Ben!” she smiled nervously at him, trying to regain her balance as fast as possible so she could relinquish her hold on him.“How is it going?”

“Oh, hey Dragon. Are you okay?” he looked genuinely concerned an offered his other hand to her almost instantly.

“Oh yeah, sure,” she finally managed to find her footing and cleared her throat before another moment of awkward silence could linger between them “What are you doing out here anyway?”

“I was about to come in,” he lied, trying to form a hesitant smile on his lips “Nice dress, by the way.”

Rey's eyebrows raised partially, whilst she hid a laugh about her choice of outfit. 

“Thank you, but I know I look like an idiot.” She admitted.

She shot an embarrassed glance down at her long fluffy skirt and her pink button up shirt, both Finn's ideas.

“But that's kind of the point, right?” She asked.

“I guess you're right,” he admitted shrugging his shoulders.“How things are going in there, anyway?”

“It is quite boring actually.” Rey pointed out with a little wince

“A bunch of pretentious people in costume doing nothing. Except for the fact that Poe and Phasma are acting really weird.”

“Weird how?”

“Oh, I don't know. They look like something between flirting and plotting like they are in a Bond movie.”

Well, that was weird indeed, Ben admitted to himself. 

Only more to add to the pile of Phas's weirdness that night. Now he was sure she was up to something and that was enough to make him wish he could be anywhere else. Handling drunk Bree was one thing, handling drunk Bree plotting something, well...

It took all of his strength and composure to speak as fluently as possible.

“I don't know if I want to go in there...” he admitted, “Do you want do go somewhere else?”

Rey's eyes widened a little and she worked to keep her reaction as calm and chill as possible.

“Yeah,” it was too high pitched, damn. 

She cleared her throat 

“Yeah, sure. Just let me give these keys back to Poe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I' currently working on some fan arts on tumblr, mostly inspired by lovely works by brilliant authors here on Ao3, if you want to take a look:
> 
> Tumblr: spiegatrixlestrange


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So... Ready or not, here's some ANGST !  
> BTW, sorry for the waiting, unfortunatelly art school has started after spring break and I'm terribly busy IRL right now.
> 
> I also made a moodboard for this story because I'm self indulgent AF, so enjoy.
> 
>  
> 
> [](https://ibb.co/cvuoZH)  
>    
> 

No mental pep talk could have prepared Ben for the lump in his stomach when Rey entered the car, his car, sitting in the passenger seat beside him. 

She was smiling at him, a broad, wide smile that didn't seemed nervous at all, or at least not as nervous as the one that appeared on his face in response.

“So...” he started, clearing his throat “Are you hungry?”

“I'm always hungry.” the girl simply replied making herself comfortable on her seat. She looked slightly different in her attitude and somehow even in her looks, her eyes seemed darker, and her cheeks were flushed. Those were a lot of changes considering she had been away for no more than ten minutes.

“Are you okay?” Ben asked hesitantly, furrowing his brow.

“Yeah, sure.” the girl replied in a smile “I just... Poe insisted in taking a a shot with him and Finn before I go.”

“A shot of what?” 

“Oh, I don't know. Something sweet, and definitely strong considering that my face is burning and my fingertips feel a little weird.” The girl confessed shrugging her shoulder.

The man tried to hide his uneasiness behind a cautious smile. How did she managed to get dizzy with just one shot? Maybe she wasn't used to alcohol. After all, she seemed young, maybe too young. God, was she older than twenty one? Has he become a cradle robber? Since when? 

Well, being a cradle robber was quite a bold assumption, considering that that would have implied that his interest in Rey might be mutual, and he clearly couldn't be certain of that. 

Okay, his mind was drifting in a far too dangerous territory. She didn't look particularly drunk, only a little dizzy, and after all they were only two normal people, two friends – friends? Where did that came from? What the hell? Actually, come to think of it, what were they? Was that a date? O my god, brain, just shut up – hanging out together, just that. No more, no less. He cleared his throat again.

“You look like you need to eat.” Ben suggested as kindly as possible, desperately hoping to don't sound patronizing “Pancakes?”

“Oh my God, yes.” the girl nodded with a huge smile.

As the car started moving they both remained silent for a while, the silence was becoming thick as Rey finally spoke.

“I'm sorry.”

“For what?” He replied, his eyes on the road.

“For looking that... Inexperienced?” she tried in a little wince “I mean, getting half-drunk with a Cosmo and a shot... I mean, a ten year old would have done a better job then me at handling alcohol.”

“Do you want me to drive you home?” 

“No, I'll be okay...I'm just sorry for being so lame.” she huffed, looking outside of her window.

“You're not lame, shut up. You just need to eat something.”

***

The diner was almost empty as they got in and sat at a table, finding place in front of each other on some typical faux leather couches. 

The place was quite well known in town for the best pancakes available 24/7, but it was still too early to find it crowded with drunk people looking for hangover food, and frankly none of them was displeased by that. 

They ordered rapidly and when their plates arrived Ben couldn't avoid a hint of amusement looking at the huge pile of strawberry pancakes landed in front of Rey.

“What?” she asked, her eyebrows rising knowingly. She was used to people reacting to her food habits. Probably it must have been weird to see a small, skinny girl like herself handling that unusually huge amount of food but frankly she didn't mind. Growing up in certain foster homes she had learned to appreciate good food like it was some kind of desirable mirage, almost impossible to reach most of the time.

The ate almost in religious silence but Ben didn't seemed to mind, seeming far to focused on shooting her occasional amused looks between one french fry and another. After they both finished, and after a quite brief and playful argument about who would have payed, ended with Rey's personal victory as she managed to pay her own pancakes despite the man's protests, they got out, and the night was still young. 

“So... What do you want to do now?” she asked almost casually.

“I don't know.” he admitted shrugging his shoulders, but suddenly his eyes widened in what looked like a particularly interesting idea, judging by the little grin on his face “Wait... I have my swords in the car. Do you want to spar?”

Rey looked back at him raising her eyebrows, barely hiding a smirk.  
“I don't know if you noticed, but I play a cleric, and for a good reason. I don't know how to spar.”  
“Do you want to learn?” he asked.

The girl bit her lower lip hesitantly for a brief moment, but then a wide smile appeared on her face.  
“Fine.” 

“Very well.” He said almost casually, just before shouting, rushing to the car “Who gets to the car first uses the bastard sword!”

“Wait!” the girl shouted back, her eyes wide”This is not fair, your legs are too long and I'm in heel- Ah!”

As mentioning her heels was enough to push her luck the infamous shoes took their revenge on her, trembling dangerously under her fast steps only to deliver her to the ground in a loud, ungraceful stump. 

“Dammit!” the girl found herself mercilessly face to face with asphalt of the parking lot, her hands and knees aching and the hem of her ridiculous fluffy skirt above her head, luckily the huge amount of tulle petticoats were partially still in place, avoiding an even less dignifying display of her little gracious backside.

“Shit!” she heard Ben's voice behind the invasion of fabric on her face, and she almost jumped out of her skin as soon as she felt two large, warm hands clumsily reaching for her waist and lifting her up on her knees. The man's face appeared in her view as soon as the hem of the skirt fell back in to place.

Wide dark eyes looking at her full of worry, the soft line of his mouth trembling in concern.

“Oh God... Are you alright?” he asked nervously, almost too nervously “I'm an idiot Rey, sorry...”

For a a few second she just stood there, cursing internally her clumsiness and Finn for making her wear those damn shoes, but all of a sudden she almost blushed as soon as she realized that Ben was actually really close, closer then ever before for sure. 

Even if the panic on his face was clearly giving away that his proximity was a genuine fruit of his concern, his huge hands were still on her, one on her waist, the other on her arm, and he was on his knees too, just in front of her, his head tilted forward to look at her, close enough to make her feel the gentle brush of his dark hair on her forehead.

The first thing that she rationally realized was that he was warm. Of course he was, being alive and all of that, but his warmth was almost comforting on her skin, in a way she hadn't noticed with anyone else. 

The second thing was his smell, damn, he smelled really good. Not like leather and metal like he smelled in his armor, while playing Kylo, more like fresh soap, aftershave and something vaguely musky that must have been his own scent, that hadn't changed from his in-game alter ego. God, that smell was distracting. Rey's eyes fell on his Adam's apple moving as he swallowed, his nostrils were wide. He was clearly nervous, his breath was a little faster then average. 

Rey had always considered herself a responsible, well mannered, mature human being, perfectly capable of choosing, most of the time, the most appropriate behavior, just like every adult should,  
and yet, in that specific, and quite awkwardly long and silent moment, she found herself looking at those full lips, at that long face trapped between panic and perplexity.

A part of her almost wished Poe would have minded his own fucking business instead of making her even more nervous about Ben, her friend's quite shitty help was making her only more insecure now, but you know what? She told herself. The night is young, let's ride the last wave of alcohol dizziness before we find the time to regret it.

Maybe she would have looked a little desperate, kissing a guy on the pavement of a parking lot, but thanks to his damn long legs that was actually the first time his mouth was close enough to her to give it a shot. I

t was also the first time she might had found the guts to do such a thing and thankfully none of them was capable to say anything right now. 

Rey hated talking to guys she liked, really. Usually talking to them would have meant saying something incredibly stupid, or mumbling helplessly about stuff no one but her cared about, dragging any possible romantic outcome into the realm of awkward, merciless failure. 

Luckily for her, Ben was still silent, his eyes still wide, locked into hers. She needed to be fast, he asked her a question, the probabilities of him speaking again soon were increasing. She was looking again at his lips when -

“Rey are you -” Dammit. Now or never, never, never, never. No. Now.

She moved forward, maybe with a little excessive determination as she grabbed the collar of his leather jacket, pulling his face down. Her lips found his as the girl closed her eyes, remaining still against his mouth for a moment, waiting for a reaction before even try to process what she would have done next. 

His breath felt a little harsh against her cheek, but, despite the evident surprise, he didn't moved away, luckily. 

And God, his lips were so soft, actually even softer than she imagined, they tasted like french fries, stupor and uncertainty.

They remained perfectly still for a while, lips on lips, both incapable to move for very different reasons. 

Probably it took him a little to actually set aside the panic, but when he did, his mouth started moving against hes, slowly, tentatively, and Rey almost gasped as she felt the pressure of his tongue against her barely open lips. 

It looked like he wasn't that shy after all, maybe Ben just needed a moment to warm up, she thought with excited relief.

As the kiss deepened it seemed like both of them had forgot how to breath, or where they were for that matter. 

His large hands pulled her closer and the girl's heart skipped a beat, as she felt her small body cradle against his broad and unsuspected muscular chest. 

Her head felt dizzy but it wasn't alcohol's fault this time, Rey realized without any intention of leaving his lips alone. Where the hell that huge-funny-nerdy-part time knight-good kisser-with awesome hair-work out god came from? She must have rolled three twenties in a row on “find boyfriend material”. 

No, nope. Calm down, let's not get ahead of ourselves. She tried to get an hold on her own thoughts but ti was pretty hard with his taste in her mouth and his lips teasing hers just right, exactly like if someone have just explained to him how to do it the way she liked it, and in a four hour long extremely accurate meeting according to the surprising result. 

As they finally moved apart at some point, both eager to catch their breaths, Rey's face was flushed and her mouth was swollen enough to make her lips red.

“Woh...” Ben managed to mumble beneath breaths “I really didn't see that coming.”

“Neither do I...” Rey cleared her throat, knowing perfectly that that was a quite obvious lie. 

Ben's big hands were still on the small of her back as he spoke again, his voice uncertain and vaguely ragged.

“I think...We should move?”

The girl took a swift look around. He was quite right, actually. They were still in the parking lot, to be precise the ground, ungracefully tangled together on the asphalt. That wasn't classy at all, to be fair. She bit her lower lip nervously.

“Car?” Rey finally asked after inhaling sharply, not exactly certain about what she was asking for. 

Ben just lifted her up on her feet in response. His hand engulfed her firmly as he started walking to his SUV. He even opened the car door for her, well, those were chivalry-level niceties she wasn't actually prepared for. 

With a barely contained grin on his face he closed her door and moved rapidly to enter the driver  
side. As soon as is door was also closed he turned around to look at her, inhaling deeply.

“I don't mean to look clingy but...” he cleared his throat “Can I kiss you again?”

That words went straight to her lower belly, making her almost squirm.

“Oh God, yes.” She murmured shamelessly this time, and as he moved forward to reach her her hands drag him neared, circling his neck. 

Suddenly, even if it was to be expected, they were kissing again, even eagerly than before, mindlessly tasting each other like their lives depended on it. 

Rey couldn't remember the last time she had felt so aroused, but also content, eager, maybe... Happy? 

Anyway, she was clearly to distracted to realize that, as her legs moved closer to his on her seat her phone fell from the hidden pocket of her skirt, landing near her feet. 

When she figured it out it was a little too late. Their lips stopped as Poe's voice, a clearly drunk Poe's voice, filled the car, loud and clear.

“Hey Hun, How's the night going? Did that emo fuck came in his pants already?”

Shit. What a time to send a voice message, especially for a voice message like that. Rey's hands moved frantically to her feet, desperate to find her phone, but she didn't and the message mercilessly continued.

“I really need to say, Reyrey, that I'm actually offended that you decided to neglect your friends for some cock. I know I basically set up that whole thing but damn, I was just trying to tease you, I mean, we both know that you really need to get laid but...”

 

“Shit” she muttered between her greeted teeth, her hand stretching hysterically to grab that damn phone, but still nothing. 

“That guy's an Ogre, you deserve better. Anyway, If you're in the mood for charity go ahead Hun! Have fun! Love ya!” 

As she finally reached for her phone her breath was sharp and the message was over. Rey didn't find the strength to lift herself up for a long moment, but eventually she did, and just as she feared Ben had took it pretty bad. 

He wasn't looking at her, his whole body stiff, his hands firmly clenched around the steering wheel and his mouth reduced to an irritated thin line.

“Ben I...I'm sorry, Poe is...” Rey mumbled nervously but he didn't gave her the time to talk.

“I'm taking you back to your friends.” he just said, the sharpness in his voice hurt her more than a punch in the face.

“But Ben I...” 

“Enough. I don't need anyone's charity.” His statement sounded awfully final as he ignited the car and started driving.

As they went all the way back to Maz's Club, Rey tried to apologize another couple of times. Each time he shut her up more harshly, and each time her eyes stung a little more. 

The SUV halted abruptly in front of the club, and he said nothing. The girl was on the edge of shaking.

“Ben, please...” she murmured helplessly, but he kept looking away.

“Get out of the car, Rey.” His voice sounded more bitter then angry now.

“Listen to me...”

“I said.” He spelled very clearly “Get out of the car.” 

Fine. She was officially crying, perfect. Rey shook her head as she opened the door fiercely, determined to not show her feelings any further. As she closed the door behind her she was tempted to turn back and try to speak to him again but Ben's car moved away fast in a loud screeching sound. 

Perfect, just perfect. The girl squared her shoulders and almost fell, unleashing her anger in a furious attempt to take those damn heels off. 

She almost screamed as she throw her shoes away.

Her eyes fell on the shiny silhouette of Maz's Club, and before she knew it she was marching to the door, her hands in fists. 

Her face was a mask of tears and rage as she got in, but it get worst as soon as she felt two hands grabbing her shoulders from behind.

“Hey hun!” Poe's drunk voice greeted her “How are you-”

Rey had never imagined she could be that swift, or that strong for that matter. All she knew was that in a second his fist had landed right into Poe's face, hard and fast enough to make the guy fall back, blood falling out of his nose.

“What the-”

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Finn's voice hit her like a lightning as he came closer, kneeling by his boyfriend's side and helping him to rise “Are you okay babe?”

“What the hell is wrong with me?!” Rey screamed into their faces, clearly frustrated, her eyes still full of tears “Well, my problem is that you two are shitty friends! I'm just your doll to play dress up with, or the idiot to mock and tease when you're bored!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Finn shouted back, Poe was trying to say something but he was clearly too sore and too drunk to speak.

“Oh, fuck off!” she only replied turning her back on her and marching to the restrooms, totally ignoring the little, surprised crowd around them.

***

The restroom wasn't indeed the fanciest place to cry, but at least it was empty, or so Rey hoped. As the door opened and closed rapidly, Rey heard footsteps moving forward her cubicle and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. Someone cleared her throat behind the door.

“Rey?” A young female voice asked gently.

“What?” the girl spat, still sitting on the toilet.

“Hey a- It's Rose... Do you remember me?” 

“Yeah?”

“So I was wondering... I really don't want to stick my nose into your business but...I thought you may need a ride home. Maybe you don't want to go with Poe and Finn right now, am I right?”

Rey replied just with an affirmative grunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to take a look at my drawings here's my Tumblr: spiegatrixlestrange
> 
> If you're into Historical AUs please take a look at my other Project, The Crest of Alderaan, it's a very important work for me and I'd love to share it with you!
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/14305692/chapters/33005541
> 
> Thank you as always for reading, Comments, Kudos, suggestions and Theories are always very apreciated! 
> 
> See you soon!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After all this time I finally managed to update this fic.  
> It's been quite a rough year and I struggled to update longer project because of work but now I'm back.  
> Thank you so much to those who'll keep reading this after all this time,   
> Thank you so much to my lovely, loyal beta AlbaStarGazer who worked with me on this since the beginning.   
> It's amazing to work with you again, darling.
> 
> Enjoy.

Two weeks passed and Rey had avoided D&D each time, staunchly ignoring Poe and Finn's texts like they were the plague in electronic form. After the first one in which Poe demanded an apology for her punching him, she decided to delete any that followed without even reading them. 

There was no news from Ben, but that was expected since he had promptly blocked her on Facebook the same night all that mess happened without even allowing her a chance to defend herself or offer an explanation. 

It hurt, deeply so and wounded, she cursed herself for allowing someone to come so close to her. What an idiot, she had experienced enough of abandonment in her life so she knew how to deal with another one, especially if it was totally unexpected.. Fuck him. 

The most infuriating thing for Rey to attempt to comprehend was that she was the one completely alone after the whole ordeal. If it wasn't for Rose, who had proven herself an infinitely kind person and an excellent potential friend in the last two weeks, she had basically no one relevant left in her life, not that she was in the mood to see anyone anyway.

At some point on Sunday morning, Rey received a phone call. Not wanting to socialize with anyone, she left the phone to ring for a while before she found herself frustrated and answering with a frown upon her face.

“Hey Rey, it's Rose.” at least the voice she heard was a welcome one.

“Hey Rose, what can I do for you?” Rey asked. She sprawled out in bed,tired but willing to hear whatever Rose had to say.

“Well,I was wondering... LARP is next week, do you have any plans about that?” The apprehension in her tone was clear as day.

Rey swallowed hard, her nostrils flared as she considered the proposition despite her nervousness.. Admittedly, a weekend of playing someone else was just what she needed, she wanted to immerse herself in the world and her character but she could not, not when the people who had hurt her used the same means of leisure and distraction.

“Rose I... I don't think it's a good idea, I mean,I don't want to see Poe and Finn, let alone play with them.”

“Why don't you play another character?”

“And what do I do? I make a character for the darkness camp and spend the weekend with the trio looking at me like I'm the devil's whore? No thanks. Unfortunately, there aren't many options for me.I'm afraid my days as a Larper have ended already.”

Despite dealing the disappointing news, Rey could almost see the grin plastered on Rose’s voice as she offered a solution, her voice chipper and light.

“Well...I might have an idea. Are you free tonight after work?”

***

Rose's car was probably the most well kept 1978 Renault 4 in the state, with its original deep orange paint still almost perfect, just short of pristine and the engine kept in check by the girl almost on a daily basis.

“Where are we going?” Rey asked for the third time in the last fifteen minutes, Rose had eluded her prior attempts and remained aloof.

“Again, trust me, let's just say that this is a surprise.” Rose replied as calmly as possible as a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

“Why do I even need to be surprised? The brunette asked, furrowing her brow as she huffed out in impatience. She tugged at her sleeves and fidgeted with the stitching as she cast a glance at Rose who was bobbing along to the pop song on the radio.

“God, you're such a buzzkill,” the other girl teased and shot her a knowing look.

Rey had never enjoyed surprises. Surprises were unpredictable, unnecessary and not knowing something about her immediate future had always put her under a great amount of stress for a reason that had always evaded her.

How could someone purposely enjoy not being in control of their own life?

Maybe she was taking the whole thing far too seriously, Rey admitted to herself, and yet the uncomfortable suspicion that something quite unpleasant was about to happen wouldn’t leave her alone.

“Are you sure that Finn and Poe have nothing to do with this?” the brunette asked for the third time in the last two hours.

Rose couldn't help but roll her eyes as she kept driving.

“Again, no, Rey, I'm not here to trick you into meeting them, we're here to meet someone else.”

The girl on the passenger seat gulped, again not entirely thrilled about the concept of meeting someone new. Calm down, she told herself, Rose is not a person Ben would hang out with. Rose was too cute, too kind and clearly too balanced to be a match for the bunch of jerks Ben liked to call friends. 

The anger was usually the first coping mechanism Rey used to handle rejection, but this time, for some reason, it was lasting longer than usual. 

“Who?” she asked after a while, determined to stop thinking about him, it only brought her anger to a boil or for the hurt to reappear when she allowed her thoughts to drift to him.

“Your new potential teammates,” Rose replied as her car finally entered the driveway of a nice house with a wrap around porch and a pretty front yard.

“The guys who play without being part of a camp.”

“And you took me to their house?” Rey frowned as she got out of the car, “Isn't this a little weird?”

“Gosh, Rey,” the other girl said back, shooting her a vaguely annoyed glare, “Can you please chill? They're alright, you seriously don't need to worry that much. One of them is my Wing Chun master.”

“I didn't know you were into martial arts.” Rey admitted.

“You should try,” Rose just replied as they walked toward the door “you could use a little bit of discipline in your life.”

Rey was about to open her mouth and give her friend a slightly offending response when the door opened in front of them.

“Rosie!” a big, imposing asian man almost shouted into their faces, a huge smile appeared between his mustache and his thick goatee as he basically lifted the far smaller figure of Rose into a hug, like she weighed nothing.

“Hey Baze!” Rose seemed totally comfortable with him, she even patted him a few times on the back as he set her back on the ground “How are you guys doing?”

“Pretty fine, Rosie,” the guy admitted jovially, before moving his eyes upon Rey, “And you must be the friend we heard so much about! Come in! I'll introduce you to the others.”

The brunette just smiled at him, slightly embarrassed as he lead them through the corridors right into a vast, comfortable open-space in which a few people were peacefully hanging out, sitting on some sofas.

“Rosie!” Some of them greeted the girl.

“Hey guys!” she smiled back at them, “She's my friend,Rey.”

“Hi.” the brunette only managed to reply, slightly intimidated by the small group in front of her.

A surprisingly cheerful chorus of “Hey!” and “Hi Rey!” raised from the sofas, accompanied with kind smiles and hands waving energetically.

The only girl in the group, another slender brunette with a ponytail and big green eyes rose to her feet, greeting Rey with a proper handshake.

“Hi, I'm Jyn,” she introduced herself. “You already know Baze,”she continued pointing at the tall asian guy who opened the door to them,“Chirrut,” she continued nodding to a second asian guy, definitely smaller than the first one. “ Bodhi,” the next man was probably the youngest, with tan skin, long dark hair and big dark eyes. “My awesome husband, Cassian,” an y attractive guy with sharp cheekbones and long brown hair waved at her. “And the sarcastic, heartless bitch there is Kay, Say hi Kay!” She concluded pointing at a blond guy far too focused on his tablet to mind the playful insults.

He replied by waving mechanically and shrugging his shoulders.

“Nice to meet you, guys.” Rey replied with as hesitant smile.

“So girls, something to drink?” Jyn offered as she walked toward the nearby fridge, the two girls shook their head but she didn't mind, taking a beer for herself and handed another one to her husband.

“So, Rey,” Cassian started speaking after a while, a smooth, thick spanish accent accompanied his words.“Rose told us you've done marvels at your first Larp last month. The whole undead thing, let me say, was impressive.”

“I only play a lot of D&D.” Rey admitted, but her lips clenched into a thin line as soon as she realized that well, she used to but with Finn and Poe.

The rest of the conversation was pretty causal and not Larp-related. They all talked about shared interests, mostly nerdy stuff. 

Less than an hour had passed when finally, Rose stood up from the couch.

“So guys, if you need to talk about in game things it's better if I go,” she announced, “I'm in another faction after all.”

“Oh, Rose, shut up.” Jyn teased her, “We know you're not a meta-player.”

“Of course I'm not,” the girl clarified, “But it doesn't feel right. Rey, give me a call when you need a lift, okay?” 

“There's no need.” her friend replied, “I've seen a bus stop not that far, I can totally take the bus.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“Well then...” Rose plucked up her purse and offered everybody a warm smile, “Enjoy the rest of the evening,guys.”

The others replied with warm salutations and enthusiastic waving as Rose moved toward the door. The rest of the night moved on between a few beers and careful planning of Rey's new character. 

Since Jyn's group didn't believe in names, she soon became Rogue Seven, or just Seven, as she was the seventh member of the squad. After all, it didn't seem that bad. The Rogue squad had a more neutral kind of game, getting involved in the plot main events only if they wanted to, serving the only entity in the game above good and evil: the Oracle. 

The night passed incredibly smoothly and for just a few moments, Rey was actually felt the cozy sensation that being a part of a group used to give her back then, when she still had Finn and Poe and...

No. There was no reason to think about him right now, Jyn and her friends were too lovely and she did not want to appeared sad in their home. Anyway, the plan was simple: In the next week or so, Rey would train with Chirrut after work to learn how to fight with a staff, she was pretty slim and agile so he had very high hopes for her progress in the matter. 

Jyn would be lending her one of her old outfits and on Saturday, Rey would play asher first fighting character. 

Everyone seemed really excited and even when the girl finally decided to go back home, everyone wished her goodnight with hugs and cheers.

She almost felt positive and in a relatively good mood, almost a record, as she waited for the bus at the near station. To be fair, it was quite late, and nobody else was waiting except for her, luckily that part of the town was quite safe.

Even if talking about Larp was taking her mind back to what happened a few weeks prior, Rey took a deep breath, shrugging her shoulders as the bus approached.

The truth was, she realized despite her involuntary sense of guilt, that she had fallen in the crossfire between two people that couldn't stand each other in the first place, and their total lack of understanding had dragged her in the mud with them.

Probably, even without her involuntary contribution, Poe and Ben would have ended up fighting for something else. Too bad none of them had considered her important enough to set their childish feud aside.

Rey, after all, knew quite a lot about not being important enough, at that point in her life she really wasn't even surprised. 

Luckily for her, Rey had learned quite some time ago, to endure far worse. One foster home after another, it was pretty easy to instill within herself that nobody really cared for her, but that was alright. After all, she had herself, the only person who would never betray her. She needed to be strong, cause no one had been strong for her.

She barely registered the bus was basically empty as she got in. She found her seat halfway, looking outside of her window, her arms hugged her backpack on her lap. 

She was experiencing a few weak thoughts, musings of loneliness and quiet, dull pain when she found herself raising her glare from the window

As it roamed almost casually around inside of the empty bus, it ended almost casually on the big rear-view mirror in front of the driver, and what she saw made her jaw clench.

A couple of dark brown eyes Rey recognized almost instantly were looking at her, and they looked somehow nervous, maybe sad, and yet they seemed unable to look away.

He was far too easy to recognize. Rey stiffened visibly on her seat as the bus kept going. 

Even in his uniform the figure of Ben was too imposing to go unnoticed, partially hunched on the driver seat, his large hands on the steering wheel. 

Rey nervously bit her lip and for a second, her brain wanted to look away in shame. It took her a moment to actually force herself into reminding herself that she didn't have anything to be ashamed of. 

If Ben wanted to be mad at someone, it should have been Poe, not her. Not her, who tried to apologize for mistakes that weren't hers from the beginning, not her, who had kissed him just a few minutes before the mess that had happened out of nowhere weeks prior.

The truth was, she forced herself to believe that Ben just didn't care enough and that he was too focused on his own pride and his stupid in and out game feud with Poe to realize that she had nothing to do with it. 

Poe, one of her best friends, probably cared even less, and so none of them deserved to witness her pain or her sadness for that matter. 

After all, she had survived so much worse, her life had been full of drama and she had had enough, she did not want those two huge man-children to drag her into their ridiculous fight. 

She was better without them anyway.

In response to her train of thoughts, her expression hardened as she kept her gaze on his eyes through the mirror, her glare full of defiance.

Almost immediately in response to such a look, Ben's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he noticed the shift in her expression, and for a moment, he seemed actually puzzled, but he didn't move. He remained upon his seat, not bothered to turn or look at her directly, ignoring her even during the couple of times the bus stopped.

His absence of further reaction made Rey's glare even more sharp, and after another long moment he just looked away, focusing on the street, not looking in the mirror for the rest of the trip. 

When the bus stopped, Rey opted for the door in the back of the bus, too pissed to trust herself anywhere near him. 

When she finally arrived home, she searched for the elven ears in her drawer, nostrils flared and her lips pressed into a thin line.

That night, the prosthetic ears of Kiriel ended up flushed down the toilet without a second thought.

***

The week before the Larp passed incredibly fast, and now, Rey was taking a deep breath as the Rogue Van approached the location's parking lot. 

Jyn's hand was on her shoulder when the vehicle finally stopped, giving her a firm pat.

Apparently, she was pretty happy with another girl finally being in the squad, and she and Rey had spent a lot of time together lately to work on her new costume.

After a few days, Rey even managed to talk to her about what happened between her, Poe and Ben, obtaining a sympathetic look in return and an irritate wince that quite matched her own.

Jyn was right, a man's ego could be something quite fragile sometimes, but she assured Rey that unnecessary drama was pretty common in the field.

Some Larpers, in her decade of experience, usually started role-playing as a device of socialization as teenagers, a way to get out of their shell of insecurities, some of them used the game as some kind of safe space.

It was pretty easy to understand how they might be particularly sensitive about that particular context. That was, of course, not the healthiest way to play, but yet a pretty common way nonetheless. It wasn't that unusual to witness an on-game feud continuing off game, exactly like Poe and Ben. 

Even if a part of Rey, a pretty hidden part, wished they had the decency to acknowledge that wrong behavior, Jyn was right.

The best thing she could do was to enjoy the game, ignore them and their stupid drama, and rub her awesomeness as a player under their big noses.

Yeah, Jyn was quite awesome as a motivational speaker.

The guys had very politely left the van to give them the space and the privacy they needed to get ready, and with such a burst of confidence in her system, Rey couldn't wait to start.

Following Jyn's sacred rule, “You don't need to look like you're from some art by Boris Vallejo to be hot at a Larp,” Rey wore the brown leather pants Jyn had given her, the tall boots up to her knee and a sleeveless dark green shirt, partially covered by a leather under-bust corset. 

As Rey struggled with putting on some really badass gloves that went up to her elbow, Jyn braided her hair to make it look like a messy mohawk, her clearly not elven ears were on full show.

After a little bit of tribal make up, a few bags on her belt and a pretty cool foam staff that dangled from her back as it lay upon her right shoulder, Rey was ready just as Jyn gave a few finishing touches to her own outfit.

As they approached the van doors, she gave Rey a knowing smirk. 

“Let's make that giant man-child swallow his pride.”

Rey replied to her smirk,a more hesitant one, but as soon as the van's door opened, she followed Jyn instantly, shoulders bare and chin raised high..

As the two of them walked through the parking lot toward the location, Rey noticed an unusual amount of stares aimed at them, most of them from curious strangers.

They were almost halfway when she noticed the first unpleasantly known faces. 

Poe was helping Finn with his armor when both of them ended up staring at her in disbelief. 

They said nothing as she walked passed them, choosing to ignored them without a second thought.

A few meters further down, Rey could clearly see the back of a ginger head carrying a silly trolley and the figure of a particularly tall, platinum blond woman walking with a backpack on her left shoulder.

As the two young women walked past them, Rey could hear Phasma's distinct voice utter an awestruck::

“Holy fuck.”

Neither Jyn or her stopped to comment further.

They entered the reception area when Rey finally noticed from the corner of her eye, a black, imposing figure in armor sitting on a bench, taking care of the last gauntlet.

Ben was probably in his Kylo-mode considering his cold expression, but as soon as his eyes meet hers something shifted on his face. For one moment,he almost looked scared, definitely tense, his dark eyes burned in a way Rey couldn't quite place. His pretty, full mouth gave her far more satisfaction, it went slack as his shock became apparent for a moment before he could regain his composure. 

The new Rogue member kept her face impassible, looking away after a long moment to laugh at something Jyn said. 

The two girls were almost at the briefing point when the tiny figure of Rose showed up, giving them both a huge hug.

“Oh my god, you look amazing!” The smaller girl told Rey with a small, mischievous grin on her lips.

“Someone is going to break some hearts this weekend.” Jyn smirked beside her.

“I seriously doubt that.” Rey replied with a little amused wince, receiving an eye-roll from Jyn in response.

“Anyway, the game is about to begin!” Rose almost squealed in excitement, her hands fumbled with her alchemist bag, “See you in game, okay?”

“Sure thing.” Jyn replied with a wink, while Rey, beside her, took a deep breath.

“Let's get this over with.” she managed to say in a low murmur.

**Author's Note:**

> So, my flight takes off in 6 hours and I really can't sleep. This is what came out of my delirious state. Yeah, i really do miss Larping.  
> "The Shadow" is obviously inspired by The Gamers
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSynJyq2RRo
> 
> If some larper finds some weird terminology is because I'm Italian, so basically, even if we also use Lorien Trust and stuff like that some terms may be oddly translated, obviously feel free to correct me if that is the case.


End file.
